Most emails from reputed businesses and organizations have an unsubscribe link at the bottom. If Netflix is sending us too many announcements about new shows, we can change our notification settings. If an organization is sending us too many fundraising emails, we can remove ourselves from their list. And if we're tired of getting special vacation offers from a cruise we'll never take, we can unsubscribe.

 

Scammers use this learned behavior for their own benefit. Everyone wants less spam. If they give us the option to unsubscribe, shouldn’t we take it?

The answer is NO!

 

Scammers are not our friends. They're not legitimate businesses. We never signed up to be on their email mailing lists. They got our email addresses from purchased lists that can often be traced back to data breaches. In other words, they stole them or got them from someone who stole them. The “unsubscribe” link in a spam message can be just as dangerous as any other link in the email.

 

Clicking on the “unsubscribe” lets them know that the email reached an actual human making the email address all the more valuable for future scams. Or they may lead to a fake login page where they try to phish for our passwords or other personal information. Or they may use the link to try to install malware on our computers.

 

So the basic rule applies. If you receive a suspicious email, don’t click on anything, even the “unsubscribe” link.

 

Even using your mail program’s unsubscribe feature still verifies your email address for the scammer.

 

So use your email program to mark it as spam and delete it.