What is the better practice to stop (reduce) spam?  To ignore it or to
'unsubscribe.'

Is it reasonable to assume that if I 'unsubscribe', I won't be taken
off the list, despite the spammers promise that I will.

Hi,

I hate spam too. Because one of my e-mail addresses is on a popular
web site, I receive probably 100 or so spam letters a day. I've never
tried unsubscribing from any of them, because the conventional wisdom
is that if you unsubscribe it just tells the spammers that you exist,
so they'll send you more.  (My practice now is to use a filter, which
gets rid of most but not all of the trash.)

But is the conventional wisdom true?  To be honest, the answer
surprised me.  According to Consumer Reports -- and how more objective
can you get than Consumer Reports? -- unsubscribing can be somewhat
effective.  Here's what the magazine had to say:

Spam I Am
"You'll find the 'unsubscribe' option on lots of spam. We unsubscribed
from two dozen spam e-mails on the same day in March 2002. Spam from
most of those sources stopped days later.
"But some cancellations never took effect because the 'unsubscribe'
e-mail address didn't work. One marketer ignored our request.
Two-river.com sent us e-mail weeks after we'd canceled its offerings.
Two others, Total eData and the CoOpt Network, stopped their spam but
then sent it under other names."
http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv2.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=156985&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=21135

Consumer Report's advice? "Try to unsubscribe, but only if the
unsubscribe link goes to a web site."

I was able to find another person who had put the unsubscription
option to the test.  This was one from CNet, another fairly reliable
source. In terms of effectiveness at stopping spam, the writer said
unsubscribing rates a C+.  Here's an excerpt that shows an experience
similar to that of Consumer Reports:

Opt-Out Attempts
"True, if you unsubscribe to a piece of mail from that e-mail, you run
the risk that unscrupulous mass mailers will use that unsubscription
as confirmation that the account is active, then continue with their
evil ways. But in my experience over two months of testing,
unsubscribing from newsletters and marketing made a lot of headway. I
did find some exceptions."
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227888-8-6602372-5.html

So the bottom line, based on these actual attempts, appears to be that
unsubscribing might help and probably won't make matters worse.  If
you read the full articles I've linked to, you'll get a good idea of
the advantages and disadvantages.

I hope this helps,

mvguy





Google search term: unsubcribe spam
://www.google.com/search?q=unsubscribe+spam&sourceid=opera&num=25&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Excellent research.  That is a surprising independent study.  I too
was expecting to hear "unsubscribing only confirms to the spammer your
e-mail account is active."

P.S. - Is there a program that will just blow up the spammer's
computer or send a severe electrical shock through their keyboard? =)

I find it helps to take into consideration the source of the unwanted
email.  The more reputable the source, the more likely they are to
respect your unsubscribe request.  But a fair number of mass mailers
actually use your unsubscribe request as confirmation that they have a
real live e-mail address on their list, which they then sell to other
spammers as confirmed email addresses.

So...if you get unwanted mail from, say the Sharper Image Catalog or
Home Depot, chances are good you can successfully unsubscribe.  If
someone's pushing a miracle herbal supplement to enhance your sexual
prowess, however, your odds go way down that unsubscribing will do any
good, and it may actually do some harm.

Good luck.

respree, I can't offer you a computer destruction program, but I can
certainly suggest something to help relieve that irritation. I've
always found it marvelously therapeutic to visit
http://www.findwhat.com and http://www.goclick.com and search for
"bulk email" (without the quotes).

Plenty of spam companies pop up, and for each one you click on, they
have to pay up! Take your mouse on a journey of retribution!

Actually you might want to look at a interesting and reliable way of
filtering spam using Bayes theorem. (as opposed to rule based
filtering)
http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html

Implementations of this idea exist here:
http://www.paulgraham.com/filters.html

Here is some additional information for you.
 http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=100503