They fill up your inbox and are a flat-out pain in the you know what but there is a way to get rid of them.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — We all get too many emails, some we’ve signed up for and some just start showing up but not every link to unsubscribe is safe.
This email is clearly spam, urging me to click on a link to update payment options to protect my photos uploaded to the cloud. It’s something I’ve never done.
Most people know it’s spam but you might not suspect the unsubscribe button to be risky
Clicking “unsubscribe” in a scam email tells the sender your email is active and that you’re paying attention. That can lead to more spam.
What can you do instead?
If you use Gmail, report it as spam. Google learns from that and starts filtering similar messages automatically.
Some emails aren’t scams, though. They’re clutter. Promotions, newsletters and offers you probably signed up for at some point.
Gmail now has a tool to clean those up faster. Look for “manage subscriptions” in the left panel. It shows every recurring email you’re getting and how often they’re sent. Some of these send two or more every day.
From here, you can safely unsubscribe from legitimate sends with a tap. It may take a few days for the emails to stop. If they keep coming, report them as spam.
If you’re pretty sure it’s a scam, don’t click “unsubscribe” in their email. Scammers will never remove you from their email lists. They’re just checking to see if you’re still there.
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