Experts warn: If you press «unsubscribe» on these emails, you will achieve the opposite. Instead of reducing unwanted messages, you are bombarded with emails from now on.
Free Viagra, a million-dollar profit, and diet pills: How many such spam emails do you receive per day? The spam filters of most modern mail programs and mail services are clever, but unwanted messages often whiz past them. This is also because the senders of such emails use nasty tricks.
This is how the experts on the online platform warn Bleepingcomputer.com in front of a nasty scam that is being used more and more. The fraudsters use fake unsubscribe emails to collect valid email addresses that are then used for future spam and phishing campaigns.
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“Please confirm”
Such emails are usually very simple, according to the report. The recipients are only asked in the message whether they want to subscribe or unsubscribe. It is not even explained what it is actually about.
According to the experts, the subject of the emails is often “we need your confirmation asap” or “please confirm your unsubscription”.
If you click on the links, the mail program is opened, which sends an email to numerous addresses that are under the control of the fraudsters. Although you can expect that when you click on «unsubscribe», no more emails from this sender will normally end up in the inbox, the opposite is achieved here. Clicking on the button only confirms your email address.
Bombarded with mail
For testing purposes, Bleepingcomputer.com created a new email address and used it to click on the links in the messages that had previously been sent to a different address. The new email address has never been used for a service or on a website. It was only a few days before the new email address was bombarded with spam emails.
The experts’ tip: If you receive an email that simply asks you to subscribe or unsubscribe, it is best to ignore the message and mark it as spam. “No reputable organization would send this type of e-mail without further explaining what the e-mail relates to,” writes Bleepingcomputer.com at the end.
