Unsubscribing from Scammers
I sometimes let scam emails come through, filtered of course, so I can keep tabs on "what's hot"...meaning, what's the next greatest scam. This way I can monitor which review I do next for my Boot Camp site. It's always interesting to hear it from the horses mouth...just don't sign up.
But when the article is written, and it is, then it's time to unsubscribe and cut down on the junk. Got to do that yesterday and already I'm getting fewer emails. It is rather enjoyable to say bye-bye and next time I won't wait as long to write that article so I can unsubscribe quicker.
The great thing about belonging to WA is that we already know we're "in the right place" and therefore should not be as easily side-tracked by promiscuous glitter and gold. Stay rooted here and you will find the baubles easy to ignore. Build a quality business and write the right stuff and you will be better off.
Now, let me go check my spam box for the next article!
Recent Comments
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I unsubscribe on a regular basis, but still get a lot of unsolicited emails. I'm sure my email address is being sold on.
Likely happens a lot. See @Rich or I've Tried That's comments below if you want to avoid this.
Great advice Rick... you are right about the shiny objects... found a lot of those before I found WA... And I was in marketing my whole life and knew better!... and still got screwed (suffered from hopium :)... Thanks for sharing and thanks for your post... Good job as always Rick....
Good word "hopium", You should write something about that. How is it they can tap into this and make us want to act. Craig did a post on the brain, maybe I'll have to read that again.
I have an outlook/hotmail alias set up. If I'm not sure if a newsletter is dodgy or not, I give my alias email address. When/if it becomes obvious that their newsletter, etc are genuine then I update my contact email to my real email address. If the email/company are scammy, I block them. If that doesn't work and they start emailing to me using another of their email addresses, I report them as phishing. Worst scenario, delete that alias email from my outlook account and just make up a new one.
Never tried reporting someone for phishing, does it work? Mostly I just block or unsubscribe, that seems to work.
I've got one guy at the moment I've blocked twice. I just got another email from him(?) from another email address of his. I've just reported him as phishing. The other reported phishing email senders have been stopped previously. The problem is when they send your email onto other other parties and then it's a never ending battle. That's when I seriously think "ok, time for another alias".
The beauty of Gmail is the ability to add a plus sign and anything after it to your email address and it will still be delivered. For example, say my email address is steve@gmail.com, I could sign up for a newsletter as steve+spam@gmail.com and it'll still get delivered to my main address. I then filter all of the emails that come to my +spam account into a label, automatically mark them as read, and check that filter as needed. It saves a lot of time and headaches.
I've read about this before, just never done it. So far I just delete my spam folder unless something looks like it might be interesting to write about. I will try your suggestion sometime though. Thanks
I just did the same yesterday and today. And sometimes I listen to what "they" have to say in their videos for knowledge purposes. It is important for us to know our enemy so that we will know how to strategize our game plan. Same is true with internet marketing, we have to know what they are up to so that we will know how to counteract and educate others about them. Great discussion here, Rick!
I like that, knowing what the enemy is up to. Yeah, we need to offer quality alternatives to folks, that's why our review pages are so important.
Exactly. This is where our reviews come in. We need a profound one and this is possible only if we know what "they" are up to.
Good idea. I sort of do the same thing with my emails. Just don't get caught up in the hype.
Dave
Have you ever really looked at how they're trying to sell to you? My favorites are when I'm getting the same messages from 3 or 4 of them and they're all telling me how unique they are and no one else knows this. Too funny.
Typically mine go straight to spam and those that make it through get flagged immediately. I got better things to do. Can we create a folder called scam :)
I get a few of these 'miracle cure' emails a week. I save them and use them to fuel an article. And all that glitters isn't necessarily gold.
Exactly, although they would have us believe otherwise. But it does bring a smile to read some of the extremes they go to in order to get you to sign up...and then the upsells start.
I totally agree, Mike. I get some fuel from emails that are pertinent to my writings to make my article the "gold" one. We @ WA make the glitters that turn into gold.
LOL. I have a "personal" domain that I just use for email. It delivers anyname@mydomain.com so I make up relevant "names" for each subscription, ie. amazon@mydomain.com if I'm subscribing to Amazon. It's incredible how many so called "reputable" companies let alone the obvious likely candidates I find have distributed my email address to third parties. Rich.
Heard that story, there was a ripple effect as I recall :) I'm using the email function here at WA for my sites and then can add them as the contact email.
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Rick, hello, hope everything is fine with you and your family. I sometimes do the same, looking around to see what is new. One problem I have found thou, is that, just as Healthywendy states, these guys are regularly swaping/selling email addresses, and it kind of gets into a never ending unsubscribing ordeal.
Best regards
Yup, I think they share. It would be useful to have a tracker of sorts that follows our email around so we know who has it. An email GPS...hmm