Never click a spammer's "unsubscribe" links -- that just tells them they have a valid account. If you use a big email provider like gmail, flag them as spam. Otherwise, make a rule in your mail client to automatically file anything from their domain to the trash.

I've had good success with unsubscribing from legitimate mailing lists using the links at the bottom of an email. It's not the company's fault if I unthinkingly subscribed to their newsletters - they shouldn't have all their emails forever tagged as spam for my mistake.

Real spam however, rarely makes it into my inbox - it gets filtered out and deleted without ever being opened.

> It's not the company's fault if I unthinkingly subscribed to their newsletters - they shouldn't have all their emails forever tagged as spam for my mistake.

It is. Default checked "subscribe" boxes during sign in, hidden settings, new lists which you are auto subscribed to; it's a never ending battle and the incentives are wrong. If there was no unsubscribe link but only the spam button, publishers would be much clearer about these things.

Ironically, the unsubscribe link has probably led to more spam, rather than less.

Half the time, clicking the unsubscribe button leads you to another form that is almost impossible to comprehend, which results in (maybe) unsubscribing you from one list, but subscribing you to fourteen other newsletters and update and special offer lists, for a net increase in spam.

If the email says "click here to unsubscribe", then it should do exactly what it says. Taking you to a page that allows you subsequently unsubscribe is not sufficient.

And yes, you should only ever follow links for companies that you are confident are not spamming you out of the blue, because of the danger that you are just confirming your email address is active.

My other gripe is that I'm not sure how anyone is going to tell that I have clicked on a word in an email, given that it's displayed on an xterm. But if they say that by clicking on it I am unsubscribed, it's their problem to make sure it happens.

> It's not the company's fault if I unthinkingly subscribed to their newsletters

If they're not confirming your opt in they're spamming you, especially if your opt-in is the result of a default-checked check box.

I don't think spammers care about the difference between an email they have and an email they have that clicked a link. They're going to spam both anyway.

I'm pretty sure they do care. They're renting out a bot-net at some $/message, and only make money when someone actually clicks through to buy their "p3n1s pills," so knowing that a real clicking human is associated with an address matters quite a bit.

Click filter, add rule to delete from domain.

But really the problem got so bad I had to stop using gmail alltogether.

Moved over to mail.yandex.com and now I do not get interrupted anymore in my life.

Thank you email and IM and "notifications" but no thank you, if I ever receive a notification of any kind, that account will either get nuclear delete option or disabled forever.

Time to move to new email providers and new emails, and stop pretending email address is an ID, because its not, its a mailbox, when it gets full create a new one, and only people you care about and when you care will receive its attention.

Report them at https://www.spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml

Please don't. All you're doing is polluting the data at Spamcop and violating their terms anyways.

https://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/125.html

Bulk email can be split into two categories: Opt-in and Opt-out. Opt-in is email that an individual requested or agreed to receive. Many legitimate mailers use opt-in methods for marketing. Individuals are responsible for reading and understanding a company's privacy policies and acceptable use policies (if applicable) before submitting an email address. If a privacy or acceptable use policy clearly states that signing up for the service results in receiving marketing or commercial email, then the individual has "opted-in" to receive email and that email is not spam.

A company emailing you when you have given them your permission to email you, but about certain topics you decide you don't like is not spam.

This practice is clearly not opt-in! There's no button "please spam me with all future newsletters we invent" you have set yourself.

Permission is granted company by company, not topic by topic. I get that "spam" has become throwaway shorthand for "email I'd rather not receive", but that is not the definition used by law and by antispam groups.

Obviously you need to "unsubscribe all" on the first mail before taking such an action on subsequent mails.