email address harvesting

[Martin Shaw]

Recently I have had some seemingly innoccuos emails from the likes of Amazon offering very mundane low priced items. Along with these is an opportunity to "unsubscribe" from a service I have never used with the email address I am using. It would seem that by answering you are confirming that the address is used and read and so doing is likely to unleash an avalanche of unwanted crap. It does look relatively harmless but nobody needs this.
Regards
Martin

 

[Marsh Lane]

Hi Martin,
The fact that the email has not bounced back as undeliverable to their server has already confirmed that the address is live. No different to all the rubbish we get through the front door really - I hit spam every time, the email software is getting quite good now at taking most of it out.

Rich

 

[Martin Shaw]

Well yes but, that an email address is valid doesn't mean that it is read or used, requesting an unsubscibe confirms both making the targeting of unwanted spam more successful. I would agree that it is no different from the majority of unwanted rubbish, but active discouragement is to be encouraged.
Martin

 

[LarryG]

Facebook is full of downright lies. "This man is in hot water" with a picture of David Attenborough. So I ckick wondering what he has gone and lent his weight to now and .........It is just an advert with no mention of this man. I now expect to be bombarded with emails! Last time, it was naughty women from Chester, (I presume they were women!) so gaw'd knows why that happened. The internet is chock full of shit that a few years ago would have shocked society.

 

[Marsh Lane]

Well yes but, that an email address is valid doesn't mean that it is read or used, requesting an unsubscibe confirms both making the targeting of unwanted spam more successful. I would agree that it is no different from the majority of unwanted rubbish, but active discouragement is to be encouraged.
Martin

Yes, that's true. Although the tracking pixels in the email have identified that the account is in use, but I agree with your comments.

The flip side is that clicking that unsubscribe button should put the address on a 'do not send' blacklist for that type of mailing list from that company - assuming that the sender is a 'responsible' sender lol!

 

[Focalplane]

I miss out on a lot of family news because I won't use Facebook or anything of the same "we want your data so we can make money" business plan. They know this so send me emails with their latest photos. Win win for me!

 

[LarryG]

I was talked into joining Facebook covering the town I grew up in. I left the town in 1965, so it was terrific when I rediscovered some friends. I recieved a class picture taken in Junior School, although it was sad to learn that some of those young people I last saw 68 years before had already had their lives and passed away.

 

[Bazzmund]

It's net fishing. Your best way to check if the email is legit is click on the email address in the from bar. @amazon.co.uk is legit. Mauriceknockercocker@spooge.com is not. It's casting a big net hoping someone will bite.

 

[michael080]

It's net fishing. Your best way to check if the email is legit is click on the email address in the from bar. @amazon.co.uk is legit. Mauriceknockercocker@spooge.com is not. It's casting a big net hoping someone will bite.

It is not only the "sender"-address, it is also the "reply-to"-address that should be checked. The sender address can be faked and the mail will still be transported, but if the sender needs any feedback, he will need either a correct sender-address or a fake sender-address combined with a correct reply-to-address.
Sadly, Outlook, the number one mail client program hides both details effectively from the user.

Michael

 

[Bazzmund]

Fortunately if you have a smart phone with its own maker's email application it does allow you to check it. Most of my email checking is done via phone and I can quite handily filter the spam through that. Although given my millenial cynicism most legit marketing emails tend to go into my junk too, so any that come through saying "win £.3000.444 poUnds gifted card" stick out like a sore thumb

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Personally if I'm not expecting an e-mail nor recoginse it I just delete them without opening - including marketing ones. For services I'm registered with I use the opt out facility enshrined in UK and EU legislation.

Same with text messages - if I'm not expecting nor recoginse it I just delete them. Even those which puport to come from reputable companies - dubious one can be spotted immediately as they originate from mobile phone numbers.

 

[John K]

Don't sweat the small stuff.
Just us the delete button and move on.
John K

 

[Duncan Chandler]

Simple, rather than using unsubscribe make it as junk and block sender.