There are few things in the digital world as annoying as spam emails. They flood our inbox after our email address is sold by a data broker, shared with third parties from a site we’ve willingly given it to, or obtained through a data breach. It’s natural to want to get off these lists as fast as possible, but if there’s one thing you should rarely ever do with one of these spammy emails, it’s click the “unsubscribe” link found in it. Here’s why, and what to do instead.
The problem with ‘unsubscribe’ email links
With few exceptions (see below), you should avoid clicking on unsubscribe links in most emails you receive. This is especially true if the link is in an email that is clearly spam, one from some business or website you have never given your information to.
This is because these unsubscribe links usually take you to a web page via a URL embedded in the unsubscribe text that identifies your email address, either in plain text or via an alphanumeric code. The moment this unique URL loads, the spammer at the other end knows that you were the one to click it; they now know that the email address they blasted does, in fact, have a real person at the other end.
If the email is from a spammer, there is a high chance that they will not—and never intended to—delete your email address from their database. In this case, clicking on that unsubscribe link reveals to the spammer that the email address they’ve sent the message to is being read by a human. This confirmation usually only makes your email address a target for even more spam emails. This is the best-case scenario.
But there’s a worst-case scenario as well. Scam emails often imitate genuine organizations—such as your bank or a subscription service provider. These emails typically claim that you can opt out of what appear to be marketing messages by clicking the unsubscribe link. However, when you do, the link directs you to a malicious website that appears legitimate and asks you to log in or provide other personal information to verify that you are the account owner who wants to unsubscribe. The scammers then use the information you enter on their fake site to hack into your real account or commit other types of identity theft with the data you’ve given them.
Here’s what to do instead
It should be noted that if you are 100% certain an email is from the organization it purports to be (such as Netflix, Apple, or Chase Bank, for example), it’s pretty safe to click on the email’s unsubscribe link. Large companies tend to honor unsubscribe requests because they would face significant public backlash (and potential legal troubles) if they didn’t.
But if you are even remotely uncertain, or the email is clearly from a spammy site you never signed up for in the first place, it’s probably best to avoid clicking on that tempting “unsubscribe” link.
Instead, if you want to stop receiving emails from the sender, you can block the offending email address. When you block an email address, any emails from that address will usually be sent directly to your spam or junk mail folder, so you should never see a message from the sender’s email address in your inbox again.
How to block an email address
The best way to block an email address depends on the email service provider you have.
If you use Gmail on the web, you can click the “More” button in the Gmail menu bar of the offending email and then select “Block [sender].” Future messages from that email address will be sent right to the spam folder. If you’re using a mobile device, you can find Google’s instructions for blocking an email address here.
If you use Apple’s iCloud—or the built-in iPhone Mail app—you have several options for blocking an email address. If you’re on an iPhone, the quickest way to block a sender is to swipe on the email message in the Mail app’s inbox to reveal its “More” button. Tap that button and then tap “Block Contact” to block the sender of the email.
This will cause a banner to appear above the email stating that the sender is blocked. However, emails from a blocked sender will still stay in your inbox until you set the Mail app to automatically move messages from a blocked sender to the Trash folder. Do this by opening the iPhone’s Settings app, tapping Mail, tapping Blocked Sender Options, and then selecting “Move To Trash.”
Other major email providers, such as Outlook.com (owned by Microsoft) and Yahoo Mail, offer ways to block email addresses. See instructions here for Outlook and here for Yahoo Mail.
Protect your email address without needing to unsubscribe from anything
A final way to avoid getting a deluge of spam email is to avoid using your real email address in online forms or websites. Instead, use an email alias, which is a randomized email address you can use instead of your real one. Emails sent to this email alias will still arrive in your real email address’s inbox, but if that email alias is ever abused, you can just delete the alias, which means that any emails sent to it never reach your inbox.
The easiest email alias system to use is Apple’s Hide My Email service—a feature available to paying iCloud Plus subscribers—and arguably the best reason to become a paying subscriber. As I wrote previously, Hide My Email is probably the best Apple product you aren’t using. It’s effective, easy to use, and costs as little as 99 cents a month.
But what if you’re not an Apple user? Google is reportedly working on bringing a “Hide My Email”-like feature to Gmail users, called Shielded Email. In the meantime, Android and Windows users with non-iCloud email accounts could get similar Hide My Email functionality with Proton’s SimpleLogin service.
But whatever you do, try to avoid clicking on those tempting “unsusbscribe” links in spam emails.