Junk Mail unsubscribe?

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When I get junk mail.. example date with Ukranian, Russian, Chinese, and more.
Never want to see these again.
So, I unsubscribe!

But does that mark my email address as a real one, of a living person, and making it more available to sell to another junk address?

So should I unsubscribe, or just delete them?
 

Cory Cooper

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Hello,

Do not unsubscribe directly within emails, especially from within SPAM emails. Yes, it marks your email address as a valid one, and will lead to even more. If you want to unsubscribe from companies you have dealt with directly, it is best to login to your account on their website, not from email links, and change your marketing/communication/newsletter settings there.

Hope that helps,

C
 
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Cory's nailed that one! Doing an "unsubscribe" from within a spam e-mail is an invitation to doubling the crap that lands in your inbox.

The same situation has arisen here in my household with our landline phone (don't let me get started on why we still have a landline, I've been begging my wife for 3 years to dump the thing!).

I won't answer the landline when it rings for love or money. CallerID spoofing has become so prevalent that it can say it's my next door neighbor or even the Pope, and it'll turn out to be some bilge-swilling grave-robbing vampire telling me there's an issue with my credit card account, trying to warn me of the dire situation I'm in for not renewing my car warranty, someone trying to sell me burial insurance or anything else you can imagine. Simply answering the phone tells the caller there's a live human being on this end of the line.

Anyone I love or care about knows my cell number, and even then, I don't answer that unless I recognize the number (if they're not in my Contacts). In case it's someone I need to hear from but don't answer, they can leave a voice message. Otherwise, screw 'em.

Since my wife refuses to give up the landline, I think I'll set up an ancient Mac LCIII I have in my closet and hook up an even more ancient 56k modem to the phone line, and have the modem answer on the first ring (at least while my wife's at work)!

After I stopped answering the landline, spam calling dropped dramatically, but since my wife can't resist, the flow will never likely cease to a trickle. Perhaps some day, she'll come around.
 

Cory Cooper

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Allen,

I have a landline through Comcast. In the last three months or so, the volume of robocalls has increased dramatically. Caller ID shows that many of them are coming from local numbers in my exchange, and even from landline and cell numbers not far off of my own. Comcast had a note about it when I logged in to pay my bill. Normally, I ignore things like that, but this time I read through it. They suggested using the service Nomorobo. It is free for landlines, so I figured I would try it to see what happened...I could always remove it if it didn't make a difference.

Since signing up for Nomorobo, I now get very few robocalls, if any, on a daily basis. What was upwards of 10-12 a day, is now maybe 1-2 every couple. I highly recommend trying it out. I haven't used it on my cell phone, as I don't give that number out and haven't experienced many at that number.

Hope that helps someone,

C
 
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Allen,

I have a landline through Comcast. In the last three months or so, the volume of robocalls has increased dramatically. Caller ID shows that many of them are coming from local numbers in my exchange, and even from landline and cell numbers not far off of my own. Comcast had a note about it when I logged in to pay my bill. Normally, I ignore things like that, but this time I read through it. They suggested using the service Nomorobo. It is free for landlines, so I figured I would try it to see what happened...I could always remove it if it didn't make a difference.

Since signing up for Nomorobo, I now get very few robocalls, if any, on a daily basis. What was upwards of 10-12 a day, is now maybe 1-2 every couple. I highly recommend trying it out. I haven't used it on my cell phone, as I don't give that number out and haven't experienced many at that number.

Hope that helps someone,

C
We have AT&T <hocker-spit>. Unwashed spawn of diseased carrion eaters, the lot of them. I would prefer having Comcast as an ISP since we already have them for TV. And their speed is 2x what I'm paying for with AT&T, and it's $6/month cheaper to boot!

Nomorobo??? Shhhh!!! I don't want my wife even thinking something like that might be available! It would only serve to stiffen her resolve to keep the landline!!!

As far as the cell phone thing goes, I have my own unlimited plan through T-Mobile. And while spam calling is becoming a bigger and bigger problem with cellular, T-Mobile's free spam blocking works remarkably well for me.

Sometimes, I think my wife is a heathen. She has a Samsung <hocker-spit> and piggybacks on her daughter's Verizon plan. I will say she doesn't seem to get many spam calls, but more than I do.

In this day and age, I can't see the logic of having a landline. Especially if you use the cordless handset types. In the past, with a completely corded phone, if the power went out, chances were pretty good you still had phone service. But with the cordless handsets, no power = no phone.
 

Cory Cooper

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;)

Unfortunately, I would get rid of my landline, but the package discounts through Comcast prevent that. I was going to eliminate the landline and reduce my Internet speed at one point, but the monthly difference would have been about $5. They got me. ;)

C
 
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;)

Unfortunately, I would get rid of my landline, but the package discounts through Comcast prevent that. I was going to eliminate the landline and reduce my Internet speed at one point, but the monthly difference would have been about $5. They got me. ;)

C
I hear you. Bundling can be a double-edged sword, though. I just don't see how my wife can justify continuing with our AT&T bundle. All we have is the landline and their DSL Internet. The thing is, we're paying $100/month for 12 gbps Internet, and the landline (which even she rarely ever uses). But I've never "clocked" my Internet speed at much more than 7-8 gbps on a good day! Normally I get 5 gbps.

After repeated visits by a technician and no improvement in speed, one very honest tech told me the problem wasn't with our house's wiring, our equipment, etc. It was the wiring and junctions and the like a few blocks away from our house which connect to the larger network. The guy said he honestly believed some of that crap was installed in the 1960s! And given we live in a small town about 30 miles outside of Indianapolis, upgrading their infrastructure here locally most likely doesn't rank very high at all on AT&T's list of priorities.

After (yet another) angry phone call to AT&T, threatening to cut everything off altogether, the sheepish Customer Support moron offered to slash our bill 50% for twelve months since I wasn't "getting what I was paying for." I said, "Okay. Then in a year from now, I'll be right back in the same boat I'm in right now. What are you going to do then?" All he could say was we could cross that bridge when we came to it.

To AT&T's credit (no pun intended), they cut our bill to a flat $40/month for everything. Who knows what can happen between now and 8 months hence?

  1. AT&T might actually complete their fiber optic network, giving everyone in town a much-wanted speed bump (without raising prices).
  2. They may well permanently extend our discounted rate for less-than-advertised speeds.
  3. I can teach my wife's horse to sing hymns.

At any rate, my son has Comcast Internet-only, and is paying for a 25 gbps service, and my software consistently shows he's getting speeds well north of 40 gbps, and getting it for about $55/month.

We're already paying $100/month just for an enhanced "basic" cable service with about 150 channels. I think we'd be much better off switching. The thing is, when we got married about 20 years ago, I sold my house because my wife wanted to live here in her house, where she's had AT&T phone service since she first bought the place 30 years ago, so I've always let those things remain solely in her domain. That doesn't mean I might not get a burr under my saddle one day and just force the issue. I just prefer not rocking an otherwise blissful boat.
 

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