We’ve all received spam. And we’ve all been pretty annoyed by it. Spam – or unsolicited emails – come from just about everywhere. Businesses of all kinds employ this incessant use of unwanted emails to promote their goods and services without much care for how many people they end up frustrating.
The problem with spam is that it fills our inboxes and, in reality, none of the emails are actually meant for us specifically. Spam occurs when your email address is located and stuck into a mailing list that has intentions of inundating you with advertisements. After a while, your inbox is filled to the brim with emails you both don’t have time for and wouldn’t be interested in anyways.
Hitting “unsubscribe” is often highly recommended.
Quite often, you’ll get advised to hit the “unsubscribe” button by blogs covering the topic of spam. In fact, many of our past blogs on the topic of spam have offered the same tip. However, hitting “unsubscribe” – which is meant to take your email address off of mailing lists – doesn’t seem to work as well as advertised.
On NakedSecurity.com, Alan Zeichick tells us that the “unsubscribe” button can actually do the opposite of its intended effect. He notes that clicking on such a link only confirms to spammers that your email address is both valid and in active use.
“If the sender is unscrupulous then the volume of email you receive will most likely go up, not down,” Zeichick warns, “Worse, now that you have validated your address the spammer can sell it to his friends. So you are probably going to hear from them too.”
You may wish to avoid the “unsubscribe” link.
Vangie Beal wholeheartedly agrees. On Webopedia.com, she points out that the “click to remove” button can actually do more harm than good. She notes that spammers use the catch phrase as a way to entice people to respond to emails. It is possible you will be removed from mailing lists, Beal notes, but reiterates that your taking of action is proof that your email address is valid.
“They know this because you responded and asked them to remove you from the list,” she explains, “This can actually be more valuable to the spammers because they can now sell your address to another spammer with the assurance that the email address is legitimate. So you may have been removed from one list, but there’s a good chance that you will end up on another.”
What is the best way to deal with spam?
At MeloTel, we’re very confident in our solution. MeloTel Spam Portal is the ideal spam blocker for the small to medium organization as it blocks 99.9% of all spam! It includes two antivirus products – Kaspersky and Clam AV – which help to identify and block phishing mail, mail from Botnets, graphic based spam, malicious URLs and implement a host of other security measures to ensure your organization gets the best protection available on the market.
For more information about MeloTel Spam Portal, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the Live Chat feature on our website!
