this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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For example, I opt out of all emails from a website. A year later they make a new newsletter and auto subscribe all to it.

I login, hit unsubscribe, then report as spam in my email client.

I figure auto adding me is more/less spamming me. Do y'all agree?

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[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 113 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

you opt out of all, they send crap a year later--presumably without you conducting other business with them in the meantime, correct? hell yea, that's spam.

[–] Godort@lemm.ee 92 points 3 months ago

Not at all.

Unsolicited email is spam. It's as simple as that. Dont feel bad about flagging them as such if they won't respect your contact preferences.

[–] Jourei@lemm.ee 54 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Definitely counts as spam. I give them a few courtesy clicks on the "unsubscribe", if I still get the chance in yet another email, I go for the "report as spam" as they clearly don't give a damn.

Also, screw those who require you to login to update your preferences, they also get a quick treatment as above. Take me to the page where I can adjust the types of email I get if you must, but obey the unsubscribe demand by default.

In the end, "report as spam" is two clicks away making it the easiest route to achieve the same result.

[–] brisk@aussie.zone 20 points 3 months ago

I've met multiple sites that won't load the unsubscribe page without disabling ad blockers.

Those get spam listed the same as login walls.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 46 points 3 months ago

Is it mail you want? No? Then it's spam

[–] macabrett@lemmy.ml 45 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'll mark them as spam even if I technically signed up for whatever bullshit they're sending because I didn't notice the box to uncheck when making an account. It's a shitty tactic and they've all ruined email with it.

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago

Yeah, this is basically my line. If I intentionally subscribed I will be sure to unsubscribe properly once (maybe twice). But if it was unsolicited then it will be marked as spam.

[–] HonkTonkWoman@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

Yup. I’ll sign up just to get the initial discount & still mark it all as spam.

[–] tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 31 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No. I sometimes even report them as spam just because they opted me in without asking. Report all the spam.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 20 points 3 months ago

“Opting you in without asking” is the literal definition of spam.

[–] thepreciousboar@lemm.ee 25 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Just a remainder that auto subscribing to a newsletter is illegal in an entire continent now (thanks GDPR). So no, reporting as spam something that is literally spam is not wrong.

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 months ago

Also Canada, and I think in California.

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 21 points 3 months ago

certainly not. its up to them to protect their repuation by right action. they should not have added you to something after you said you don't want anything from them.

[–] trk@aussie.zone 19 points 3 months ago

I report every mailing list email as spam, unless I specifically signed up for it.

So sick of, say, getting my car serviced... and next minute I'm getting email spam about deals on oil and air fresheners or something because deep down in the 14 pages of text they want you to accept while you're standing at the counter is a pre-ticked box that says "allow us to spam you indefinitely?". It's not like I want to sign up for anything, but to get the oil changed on my Hyundai apparently I need an email address so they can send me confirmations of my appointment. Sounds legit.... oh wait, actually its just an excuse to spam me about the new Kona.

We did a US trip last year and I was getting DAILY emails from Applebees because I put my email address in to get a copy of my receipt when I paid once. Who the heck wants DAILY spam about dinner ffs?

[–] BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world 18 points 3 months ago

I applied to a job with a hotel once, now they send me regular emails about other unrelated jobs. But to unsubscribe I have to log in, and apparently applying to the job didn't create a complete profile so I'd have to create an account just to unsubscribe.

They're marked as spam now.

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

No ...He'll no. That's spam. Some of those newsletters likely come from unscrupulous sources that will instead use the "Unsubscribe" link as an engagement metric that confirms your email account is still active so they can bombard you with even more spam. You're just doing your part at keeping the spam filter up-to-date

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 14 points 3 months ago

I used to do this kind of thing for work. Best practice is, before you sign anyone up for a list, even one they literally just clicked to subscribe to, you send them one email saying hey click this thing if you want our newsletter. Just so there’s never a misunderstanding. If they don’t click, you never send them anything else.

Report away. Fuck ‘em.

[–] 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 months ago

I get many many emails from a website that specializes in gifts for spouses ..

I unsubscribed from all.. they doubled down. I unsubscribed again.. and they Kept sending emails.

I flagged the entire domain as spam in Gmail and it all just goes to spam now.

Fuck all that noise

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 13 points 3 months ago

If they can't respect a recipient's consent, they deserve it being a little harder to deliver to people using that mail server.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

If it’s once a year then I just delete it without though.

If it’s so often that I’m annoyed I’ll mark as spam. I don’t really think much about it. Hell I’ll mark it as spam if I’m in a bad mood.

What really annoys me is e-mails that don’t do a single thing for me. No discounts, no product announcements, just poor marketing. Get out of my inbox.

[–] bloubz@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 months ago

That's probably illegal in your country (and for good reasons). You should report to the correct organization rather than the email client, which only affects their spam filter

[–] kolorafa@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

I move unsubscribed emails to different folder, so next time they send me email I don't feel bad in any way as I can confirm that I did tell them not to send me emails.

I only regret I can't flag it as spam double time.