Is it possible to unspam an email address

[CurtisBilly]

So what do you guys think? My primary email gets like 10 unwanted emails a day...do you think by responding to the unsubscribe link down at the bottom of the emails, I can make my account "fresh" again. I realize this will reduce me to getting like 1 real email a day and I will feel pathetic, but it'll stop the junk!

 

[kag]

Replying to the unsuscribe link at the bottom only tells the spammer that your address is working (read: not dead), so that's not the way to go

unfortunately, once you are in the vicious circle, you can't get out

 

[trmiv]

There isn't. Once you're in, you're in. The only way to really do it is to get a new email address.

 

[CurtisBilly]

I'm talking from like buy.com, staples.com, clickdough (DOH!), etc. like quazi reputable sites...that is things I signed up for and was stupid enough to actually put my email address....there are a couple more that I don't recall signing up for but they look semi-reputable too.

 

[piku]

Well if it is an actual site then yes, unsubscribing should work. But replying to the general stupid mass spam is something you do NOT want to do

 

[pulpp]

life is short, just get a new email address. and always have one email address for junk.

 

[monto]

careful in "unsubscribe" such that you don't reveal your address is alive and kicking and thereby propagate more spam

 

[perry]

I don't bother with unsubscribe addresses. I just go to www.spamcop.net and copy in the mail (headers and all). It figures out how to complain to and sends off the complains. UUNet & PSInet are very good about shutting down spammers' dialup accounts. Geocities is good about killing websites.

I made the mistake of signing up for TreeLoot one time. They sold my address to some company called VirtuoMondo who recently started spamming me no less than 4 times a day. I'm thinking about killing my email account for a few weeks so it bounces a bunch of spams back then reopening it so I can use it again (it's on my domain and I like the username so I'd rather not trash it completely).

Here's a hint. In the future when you sign up for crap, use an account from www.mailexpire.com to create a forwarder that will expire in a set amount of time. I'm sure you can find some uses for it......

 

[chainbolt]

I only give "fake" e-mail addresses out liei yahoo, hotmail, gmx, gol, and after a while I simply cancel them. And then the spam goes to hell.

 

[amnesiac]

Try Brightmail.com
They will automatically filter your mail for you. Works pretty well.