Some nasty minded individual, maybe an upset employee or an ex-employee seems to be trying to disrupt my email. Recently Iāve started receiving very many free subscriptions to all kinds of online newsletters, publications and other absolute garbage ranging from kidsā clothes to womenās makeup to porn. One day I received over 50 and they keep on coming.
Probably half of these do the correct thing in that I have to respond before they will add me to their mailing lists. The problem is that the other half doesnāt and I just keep getting their emails. Most of these are really a pain to get rid of. Iāve tried unsubscribing many times but they keep coming back. Iām using Thunderbird as my email client, which really doesnāt have any effective spam filter, that Iām aware of. Do you have any suggestions as to what I can do?
The very short answer is to treat the messages as spam. Iāll explain why, and Iāll talk about Thunderbirdās spam filter (which does exist), and an alternative solution within Thunderbird.
Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!
Confirmed opt-in
This is one of the reasons that most reputable email newsletters and other services have what is called a double or confirmed opt-in. What that means is that itās not enough to simply provide an email address to sign up.Ā The person receiving email at that address must take a second step to confirm that they did indeed sign up and do want the email.
Itās how the Ask Leo! newsletter works; you provide an email address, you get an automatic email, then you confirm your subscription by clicking the link provided in that automatic email. Only then do you start getting hew newsletter.
As you can see, mailings that do not use confirmed opt-in are subject to abuse; and thatās why I feel itās appropriate to label such emails as spam. If youāre getting things you didnāt personally sign up for, thatās almost the very definition of spam. That the originator didnāt use confirmed opt-in, to be put it bluntly, is their problem. Theyāre going to get marked as spam more often than more well-behaved newsletters will.
To be even more blunt, theyĀ shouldĀ be using confirmed opt-in, and this is the price of not doing so. So I have no problem whatsoever marking them as spam.
Thunderbird
Thunderbird does indeed have a ālearningā junk mail or spam filter. If you right-click on a message, you can mark it as junk, for example, and Thunderbird should learn over time. You might also need to enable junk-mail filtering in the settings for that specific email account. It may not be as good as other junk mail filters, but itās definitely there.
An alternative is to use Thunderbirdās ability to create what are called message rules or filters to dispose of the unwanted messages.Ā Since these are typically newsletters sent from a consistent source, you can define a message processing rule, or filter, that basically says, āif the message is fromĀ thisĀ sender (where the sender is one of those unwanted newsletter senders) then delete itā, or move it to a folder, or mark it as junkā¦ or whatever else you might want to do.
Yes, you may have to add or update a filter for each new subscription you end up getting but donāt want. But then at least that subscription will be taken care of and will stop showing up in your inbox.
Unsubscribe is risky
Unfortunately, I also have to urge caution on using those unsubscribe links. Since we donāt know what kind of things youāre being signed up for, itās very possible that the unsubscribe links donāt actually unsubscribe you. Itās possible that like unsubscribe links in traditional spam, they could result your getting more, not less, unwanted email.
Use your best judgment since some are probably legitimate. But if thereās any doubt, donāt click on an unsubscribe link. Use your spam filter or message rules to deal with that subscription instead. Hopefully, the person trying to annoy you will eventually get tired and give up.
What I do using Thunderbird is put a pesky email sender that repeats on a filter set to delete automatically.
TB itself is really pretty good at spotting spam. Although this morning it had put Leoās Newsletter into Spam so it pays to do a quick review of Trash before deleting.
That way I wonāt be responding to a spammer and getting even more spam.
Dear friends, family, and acquaintances,
For reasons, involving spam (unsolicited commercial emails), Iāve found it necessary to create a new email address.
As I want you to have my new email addy, please copy it into your info. Thanks.
Iāve learned, form Ask-Leo and other sources, an important detail concerning spam, which Iāll mention here, in case it may be of help to you also.
When I get spam, I should never respond, even to unsubscribe. This just lets spammers know they have a āliveā email address, and theyāll attach it to other email lists, for use and sale.
In future, I will always mark spam as spam first, then delete it. This is how spam filters learn what I call spam.
Love, TTYL, bye4now, etc,
ME
I had a similar problem with a very well known online auction site. Suddenly started getting email from the site welcoming me as a new user (having been with them for more than 10 years). A well known online bank also started sending me emails welcoming me as a new customer. Then I started getting emails from the new userās customers and when the emails became threatening (for non payment) I got on the phone. Was difficult getting this problem fixed and to me highlights a problem with unverifiable email addresses. The way this currently works with this company is that anyone can create an account and use any email address they like.
Is there a legal way to ask the vendor of these sites for the url that came in with the request to sign up for these email lists?
I would think they would have that connected with the request and the email address to identify where the original message came from.
Thank You.
You can certainly ask, but typically theyāre not going to take the time to reply.
Why not just cg your email address and be real careful who you give it out to. I have had to do this several times.
That can be one solution, but itās definitely annoying to have to do that every so often. I know my āprimaryā email address is one that I expect people to know, and one that I expect to use for life.
NO MORE E MAILS,āāāā
If you are referring to the Ask Leo! newsletter, you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any newsletter addressed to you. Something similar should work for all legitimate newsletters. If they donāt have an unsubscribe link, mark them as spam.