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Opting Out Increases Spam?

Posted by timothy on from the damned-either-way dept.

J. L. Tympanum writes "I used to ignore spam but recently I have been using the opt-out feature. Now I get more spam than ever, especially of the Nigerian scam (and related) types. The latter has gone from almost none to several a day. Was I a fool for opting out? Is my email address being harvested when I opt out? Has anybody had similar experience?"

10 of 481 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by malkir · · Score: 5, Informative

    It *does* show the spammers that the account is active and you're looking at the email...

    1. Re:Well... by Ocker3 · · Score: 5, Informative

      If it's an e-mail list you signed up for from a reputable source, unsubscribing will get you off of that list. If it's junk that you didn't sign up for, what makes you think they'll suddenly become reputable when they get an unsubscribe message? They'll simply onsell your e-mail address as an active one and keep going. Whitelist your address book, keep an eye on your spam folder for new legitimate incoming e-mails and contacts, and make heavy use of the delete option.

    2. Re:Well... by blind+biker · · Score: 5, Informative

      Don't take this personally, 'cause it really isn't - and I know I'll be modded down for this - but I must say this story has the greatest concentration of the lamest "Informative" posts, ever.

      I'm thinking that it's maybe just a gigantic troll, and the submitter is LOLling his ass off as I post this. Timothy maybe in on the joke.

      And you know what? THIS is the kind of shit that should be submitted on April Fool's Day.

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    3. Re:Well... by Max+Littlemore · · Score: 5, Informative

      RE: Well... (Score 5, Informative)

      Don't take this personally, 'cause it really isn't - and I know I'll be modded down for this - but I must say this story has the greatest concentration of the lamest "Informative" posts, ever.
      ...

      My ironimeter just exploded.

      Sorry... couldn't resist.

      --
      I don't therefore I'm not.
    4. Re:Well... by Thinboy00 · · Score: 5, Informative

      What are the moderators smoking (see parent score)?

      --
      $ make available
    5. Re:Well... by HeadlessNotAHorseman · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hey, I'm a prison snitch. Mod me informative too!

      --
      I like my coffee the way I like my women - roasted and ground up into little tiny pieces.
  2. Re:Yes by Moblaster · · Score: 5, Informative

    You don't even need to opt out -- if you leave graphical preview options turned on in your html, the spammers can use uniquely named graphical images to confirm your email address is valid.

  3. Re:Yes by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Informative

    True enough. Luckily, Gmail's default is to not download images. And in fact, I think you can't even override that global default - only on a sende-by-sender basis.

    Which is great.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  4. Re:Yes by DancesWithBlowTorch · · Score: 5, Informative

    Was I a fool for opting out?

    Yes.

  5. Different classes of spam by S-100 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have a 10+ year old email account that was used all over the place, and now has the dubious honor of getting well over 100 spams per day (unfiltered). I've recently applied the zen.spamhaus.org RBL and a short list of blacklisted domains and keywords (sorry, Mr. Hoodia, I won't be getting your emails). Applying a proper SPF record to the domain has drastically cut down on the non-deliverable backscatter. A couple of times a year, my email address was used as the reply-to address for an entire block of spam and in those cases I'd get hundreds of bounce messages in the course of a few hours. Now it's down to a few now and then, usually from hotmail.

    As for opt-out, the remaining spam comes from what look like legit marketers. I definitely did NOT opt in to their list, but once one crooked spammer sells his "double opt-in email list", you're on it for good. The legit marketers send their mail from different domains, but if the spam has a good SPF record, and the opt-out notice goes to the marketing company and not the domain of the sender, I click on the opt-out link. Incoming mail that fails SPF is rejected. No SPF record and I don't opt out. And after a few weeks, I see a negligible amount of repeat email from these marketers, and overall the incoming spam has been reduced over 90%.