Refusing Spam Only Makes Things Worse
The last time I checked my spam folder, I noticed that several messages have a link to unsubscribe. “Well, that’s good,” I thought. Perhaps spammers realize that some people will never answer, so they want to shorten their lists to improve efficiency. I clicked “unsubscribe”. It was a mistake.
While the “legitimate companies” respect the requests to waive the subscription, it said in a blog post the McAfee Labs , “shadow” just use the buttons on the failure of subscription to confirm your address and send you more spam. Sophos blogger Alan Zeychik says clicking the ” Unsubscribe ” button tells the spammer that you opened their email, possibly because you were interested or suspected that it was in fact. By visiting a fake spammers opt-out page, you give them your browser information and IP address and even become vulnerable to malware attacks.
If the email looks like really dubious spam (and not just a newsletter you’re tired of reading), don’t click on any links. Just mark it as spam and move on.