What can you do when “unsubscribe” doesn't work?

Question

I've gone through a "successful" email unsubscribe process quite a few times with some companies, only to find out that nothing really happened (keep receiving weekly/monthly spam).These aren't shady companies either: they are large legit entities in the US.I've given them the benefit of the doubt a few times, thinking that perhaps a bug failed to write my update to their subscription database, but after a handful of tries with the same outcome, I realized it is not isolated.Of course I can add an email filter, but that will not take care of the root cause that most likely affects everyone else too, whether it's a deliberate attempt at denying my request to unsubscribe or simply a bug that nobody has a way to report.What is a proper gentle nudge to say "hey, your unsubscribe system is broken, please fix it"?There is usually no contact info available to have this kind of "out of band" communication.

troydavis · Accepted Answer

> What is a proper gentle nudge to say "hey, your unsubscribe system is broken, please fix it"?
Report it to their email service provider via the abuse@ alias[1]. Tell the ESP what the problem is and ask them to contact their customer and clue them in. Reputable ESPs do this regularly.
[1]: Use the “Received” SMTP headers to see which ESP a message was sent through: https://mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx, https://www.lifewire.com/email-headers-spam-1166360, https://www.smtp2go.com/blog/effectively-report-spam/

gingerlime · Answer

I now use one-off email addresses for every service I sign up for. e.g. @mydomain.comIt&rsquo;s great to detect security leaks, but I can also just delete the address and then any email to it will bounce. This usually gets you off their list anyway after a hard bounce.

yuppie_scum · Answer

Go on LinkedIn and identify the CMO. Create a forward to that person&rsquo;s email address so all the spam bounces back to them.

bradwood · Answer

Set up a gmail rule that searches for the word "unsubscribe"....

jrootabega · Answer

Blocking the sender won't even work. These companies, though they maintain plausible deniability, deliberately ignore and evade attempts to escape their marketing space. They will occasionally shift the domain and sender to counter any blacklists. Or they will find a way to link your previous subscription to one list to a business relationship that allows them to add you to ANOTHER list. The most effective solution would be a fuzzy match on the org's name, but you would probably lose legitimate messages that way, and they also like to change their names every now and then. I'm not talking about sketchy criminal companies, but large US-based companies and charities like OP is.The only thing you can do is consider it a kind of digital chicken pox. It will always be a part of you, but hopefully it will remain inert. Never do anything to acknowledge that you have seen the messages or that you even remember that the sender exists.

slater · Answer

E-mail them directly? Check if they have a twitter feed (and one that actually interacts with ppl, not a PR firehose) and send them a DM?Alternatively, look up folks on Linkedin working at that company, preferably sysadmins/devops/whatever-its-called-this week, and e-mail them?

cpach · Answer

I&rsquo;m on Gmail and when this happens I just mark it as spam.

Jugurtha · Answer

It has happened to me. I simply sent them an email explaining the thing. They replied that I've been unsubscribed. I received emails again. I asked them again, and they fixed it.Same situation. Humans were involved, and it was resolved.

tartoran · Answer

I find that many times unsubscribing automatically subscribes you to something else so it's simpler to just flag it as junk. Unsubscribing could be seen as a signal that said mailbox is active and is not something I am willing to share with marketers.

exolymph · Answer

Complaining about it on Twitter might work (tag the company, maybe an exec or two).

shivenigma · Answer

I'll mark it as SPAM, from the 2nd or 3rd time.I marked our PM's marketing as SPAM because they're sending emails to me when I never signed up for one.

28194608 · Answer

I try hard to unsubscribe to small companies because marking their spam will be easy but it may hurt the companies future emails.

quickthrower2 · Answer

Mark it as spam in gmail. Create a rule to trash the emails.

mogadsheu · Answer

You can block the sender&rsquo;s address

Nextgrid · Answer

GDPR/CCPA request if this applies to you. Alternatively, redirect the spam to someone high-up whose time is worth a lot of money.

What can you do when “unsubscribe” doesn't work?

I now use one-off email addresses for every service I sign up for. e.g. @mydomain.com
It’s great to detect security leaks, but I can also just delete the address and then any email to it will bounce. This usually gets you off their list anyway after a hard bounce.

Go on LinkedIn and identify the CMO. Create a forward to that person’s email address so all the spam bounces back to them.

Set up a gmail rule that searches for the word "unsubscribe"....

E-mail them directly? Check if they have a twitter feed (and one that actually interacts with ppl, not a PR firehose) and send them a DM?
Alternatively, look up folks on Linkedin working at that company, preferably sysadmins/devops/whatever-its-called-this week, and e-mail them?

I’m on Gmail and when this happens I just mark it as spam.

It has happened to me. I simply sent them an email explaining the thing. They replied that I've been unsubscribed. I received emails again. I asked them again, and they fixed it.
Same situation. Humans were involved, and it was resolved.

I find that many times unsubscribing automatically subscribes you to something else so it's simpler to just flag it as junk. Unsubscribing could be seen as a signal that said mailbox is active and is not something I am willing to share with marketers.

Complaining about it on Twitter might work (tag the company, maybe an exec or two).

I'll mark it as SPAM, from the 2nd or 3rd time.
I marked our PM's marketing as SPAM because they're sending emails to me when I never signed up for one.

I try hard to unsubscribe to small companies because marking their spam will be easy but it may hurt the companies future emails.

Mark it as spam in gmail. Create a rule to trash the emails.

You can block the sender’s address

GDPR/CCPA request if this applies to you. Alternatively, redirect the spam to someone high-up whose time is worth a lot of money.