--As of August 13, 2014 11:25:26 AM -0400, David F. Skoll is alleged to
have said:
I believe that unsubscribing is safe. If the list owner is legitimate,
unsubscribing will work. If the list owner is a spammer, he/she already
has your email address and I don't believe spammers track the validity
of addresses anyway. (Safe doesn't mean effective, of course!)
The only case in which unsubscribing is dangerous is if you
unsubscribe from a previously-unknown address. That'll get you added
to spammers' lists.
--As for the rest, it is mine.
There is a third case I've seen on occasion, that hasn't been discussed:
Unsubscribe via web. Many legitimate sites use it - to unsubscribe you
click a link and go a web site, which gives some option to unsubscribe.
(Often from multiple lists, or something similar.)
But these are *not* safe if the mail isn't 'legitimate': I have also seen
the link go to a site filled with malware; the unsubscribe link then is the
real attack.
I'm still split on unsubscribe-via-email, but I don't consider it actively
hazardous. Unsubscribe-via-web can be.
Daniel T. Staal
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