questions → is there a way to unsubscribe from lists that don…

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Is there a way to unsubscribe from lists that don't offer the option?

This past summer, I signed up with CareerBuilder in the hopes of finding a temp job (side note, do not ever sign up with that site). Since then, my personal e-mail (ie the one I care more about) is getting more inundated with spam. This is despite the fact I told CB to not share my info and despite the fact I have long since terminated my account with them and again asked them to remove my info from their servers. But I digress.

I'm getting a fairly constant flow of spam now, albeit a small one. Of course, none of them have any way to remove my email from their lists. Does anyone know of any sort of way to blacklist one's email from spam lists, or to get off the mailers I've been sold to?

I figure this is probably a common enough problem to post here...so let's hope there's something that can be done!

by thedogma
asked 4 months ago

8 Answers answer

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vote-for2vote-against

What email server do you use? Do you have any other information that someone could use to help you better?

jsoko
4 months ago

vote-for12vote-against

You won't like anything I'm going to tell you, but I'll tell you anyway.

It's too late for that email address. Every time you click "unsubscribe" to anything that's spam, you confirm that your email address is an active one, and that they should keep sending you spam. No, it doesn't mean that it will stop if you don't. There's no possible way for you to win, ere. On those extremely rare occasions where I could track down who was sending it, I call. Over and over. Often. From multiple phone numbers. Phone calls are very expensive, but ONLY for legitimate businesses.

Usually spammers are not legitimate, sad to say.

I always generate throwaway addresses via the free email services (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc), and trust my real email to very few places. Woot has a real email address. So does Amazon. Meritline does not (they're fun, but hardly someone I trust in the way that I do Woot).

Make a new email address.

shrdlu
4 months ago

vote-for2vote-against

I may have further information on CareerBuilder, though. I've been cleaning out email (in preparation to dumping ALL my gmail/google accounts), and I've dealt with them before. At least, I can see I had email exchanges with them, and it didn't appear to escalate.

shrdlu
4 months ago

vote-for4vote-against

shrdlu is right. Once your e-mail address is sold to spammers, then it's never going to be clean.

I've said this before: this is why I use unique e-mail addresses for everyone, so when low-life scum-sucking companies (like Experian) sell my e-mail address, I KNOW it was Experian that did it.

Attempting to unsubscribe from a spammer's list simply tells the spammer that you're a live human and they'll sell the address to everyone else who they can.

You have all of the idiots that respond to spam to blame for this. I personally subscribe to Roger Ebert's Boulder Pledge: "Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message." (Yes, that Roger Ebert.)

If everyone did this, spam would fade away.

rhmurphy
4 months ago

vote-for3vote-against

@shrdlu: That's a shame...I just tried emailing them as well.

It's honestly not a lot of spam, probably around 8-10 a week. It's just somewhat upsetting because it's supposed to be a more professional email, at the very least, a private one. Up until I signed up with CB, that addy had never gotten a single spam email.

I'd really just like to nip it in the butt before it ends up like my yahoo, which gets upwards of 100 a day. A minor inconvenience at worst, I'll be the first to admit, but I was just curious if there was anything that could be done.

@jsoko: it's just a gmail. As I said above, not the end of the world, just irked me because I had prided myself on keeping that address spam-free.

thedogma
4 months ago

vote-for2vote-against

@thedogma: Is the spam filter not working? I have Gmail as well, mine works really well. If the message is in your inbox, you can check the message using the check box and report it to Gmail as spam by clicking the Stop sign with an '!' in it.

jsoko
4 months ago

vote-for2vote-against

Wonder if you could create another one and switch it over to that? In other words, create a new e-mail address, then go on carrerbuilder.com and switch your login information to be the newly created one, diverting spam away from your established personal address.

captainsuperdawg
4 months ago

vote-for4vote-against

@thedogma: I suggest that you keep the email address you have with Careerbuilder, but don't use it for anything else. I doubt strongly that providing them with a new email address that they can be careless with is a wise idea. I don't know that they're that useful as an aide to finding work in any case.

shrdlu
4 months ago

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