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Spam mail

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When you opt out of spam mail, does that work or does it just allow the sender to know that you do exist?

I use Ella with Outlook, but I still have to download it all or check it on the web site first.

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Opting out of spam is a 50/50 proposition.

That is, about half of the sites remove you from their lists.
The other half passes your address on to other spammers or even sister companies.

The BEST way to avoid spam is to avoid FREE offers that require a valid e-mail address.

Chas

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Poster rated this answer.
Thanks, that is what I thought

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When you opt out you are essentially telling the spammer that there’s a living person that actually read at least part of the e-mail; which could have two effects:
1) actually get you off the list (if the Company is legit)
2) actually get your address to other spammers

The “best” way to avoid spammers is not give them an e-mail account to spam you with… or give them a free one that you let expire and change the name of the account every few months.

Incidentally the e-mail programs that “block” spam… they don’t do anything beyond throw out the spam. The persons sending still have your account, and they still sell the info, and the e-mail still gets out there and you still get spam.

My recommendation:
Keep your e-mail account private (friends and family only). Keep a yahoo.com or hotmail.com address for giving out to those who insist… but monitor the account and let it expire when all you get is stuff you do not want.

Contact your network administrator or ISP and have your account name changed if it already is out-of-control. At least then the messages bounce back to sender as NDR.

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As Chas said, it’s a 50/50. Larger more respectable companies, i.e. Opting out of HP’s Newsletter or marketing email can be considered safe. They aren’t making a great deal of money from SPAM, people know they exist.

A get rich quick program or Viagra advertisement is best simply deleted. Creating common address blocking rules rarely works anymore because SPAMMERS use alias addresses and can change them many times daily, blocking one address will just get you hit from another.

As mentioned before, the best is just not to add your email address ANYWHERE that you don’t want to receive email from and watch that checkboxes aren’t already checked off saying that you want partner advertisements.

Lastly, if you want to try freeware or other free software, ergister with Hotmail or Excite for a free email address and use it for such sites. The email SPAM is easily ignored this way and those little passwords and confirmations can still be obtained.

I have a REALLY old accout from boxfrog.com that I use for just this. I file all my passwords and confirmations into one folder and then just visit onvce a week and delete all mail (excluding the Password folder).

There are many Heuristic and RBL SPAM protection products available but for the home user they require you to retrieve your mail before it can filter it. For network you can deploy many SPAM options but few offer reliable security unless you are spending the big bucks.

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