Do you get a ton of spam emails and actually look at them sometimes?
If you do, you might notice on some of them that there is an unsubscribe link at the bottom, or it says to stop receiving future emails, please write to or click here. This seems awesome and great right, you can stop getting spammed and stop all these unwanted emails from hitting your inbox or email. Unfortunately, that is not always the case anymore.
The Government tried to set up this set of guidelines or laws called the CANSPAM Act and in doing so opened up an entire new form of Black Hat Marketing, mentioned in the post before this.
The thing is that Spam Houses (Known Email Spammers) could really care less about the CANSPAM act and pay the fines that the government gives them when they get caught spamming. Now there are much stricter laws going in to place and much more severe penalties if you are caught spamming multiple times.
Anyways, when you click these links or write to the email address to try to opt out of the Spammer’s list, what happens some of the time, not all of the time, is that they track who clicks these links or emails them and instead of you just being removed, you actually improved their lists because now they know a few more things about you that they probably wouldn’t have known if you didn’t try to unsubscribe.
They now know your emails address is active or that parts of the list still work. By having parameters set in the links you click, they now have your actual email address and can tell that you also open up emails and are active. They can also start to gather a bit more data on your like what time you check your email, and a few more things they can use to more efficiently further market to you. Not to mention if you fill out your address, why you left, etc…
Now, not everyone does this and opting out can actually work if it is a legit email and not a spam house, but suppose you don’t trust it or just are fed up with the spammer and want to start stopping your inbox from getting flooded with spam mails.
There are a few things you can do to help stop spam from getting into your email inbox.
1. Select the message without opening it and simply click on the mark as spam box or move to junk folder. Although this has no instant results, it does help block that sender in the long run.
2. Find the owner of the product being marketed and send a direct complaint into thier Marketing Department or even into the higher ups at their company letting them know they or one of their partners is spamming, just don’t give them your email address. Phone is fine because if they start calling you and you are on the do not call list then they are going to get in a lot more trouble then it is worth.
3. You can look up where they bought their site from and ping their IP address and then send spam complaints not only to their hosting companies and registrars who may fine them or take them offline, but also take it to the next level and really crack down on them for spamming. This does take more time and more effort and you have to know how to look them up and how to look up their IP addresses, etc… if it isn’t in the actual email. But at the same time, it is the most effective in helping to stop them from spamming you and everyone else on their lists.
There is a lot more that you can do to help prevent spammers from getting into your inboxs and your email addresses, but if you do the three things above, chances are you will make a dent in how many of them can actually continue to get into your inbox and help to decrease the amount of spam you receive.
Nothing is fool proof and tomorrow these tips may not even work, but for now, they seem to work pretty well for me at least so if you are tired of being spammed, try the 3 tips I mentioned above and see if they help you decrease the amount of spam you get in your inbox.
