Tech Tip Tuesday: Be Careful Clicking “Unsubscribe”

We’ve all done it. You open your inbox, see another annoying junk email, and click the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom hoping it will finally stop. But here’s the catch: if the email is from a scammer or spammer, clicking that link can actually make things worse.

Legitimate companies are required to honor unsubscribe requests, but shady senders often use those links for a different reason. When you click, you may be telling them something very valuable — that your email address is active and someone is reading their messages.

That can lead to even more spam, more scam attempts, and in some cases, exposure to malicious websites designed to steal information.

So how do you know what to do?

If the email is from a company you recognize and trust, like a store you’ve shopped with or a newsletter you signed up for, the unsubscribe link is usually safe.

But if the email looks suspicious, has poor grammar, strange formatting, odd sender addresses, or promises something too good to be true, do not click unsubscribe.

Instead:

• Mark it as spam or junk

• Delete it

• Block the sender if needed

Your email provider uses those spam reports to learn and help filter future junk messages.

A lot of spam emails try to look legitimate at first glance. The name might say “Amazon,” “PayPal,” or “Netflix,” but the real sender address tells a different story.

For example:

support@amazon.com = probably legitamazon-security-alert. However, @totallynotamazon123.ru = huge red flag

That’s why it’s smart to check the domain — the part after the @ sign.

If the email says it’s from your bank, but the address ends in something strange, random, misspelled, or completely unrelated, don’t click unsubscribe… and definitely don’t click any links.

Think of it this way: If it claims to be from Best Buy, but it’s coming from @insertvirus.com… run.

A good rule of thumb is simple: if you don’t trust the sender, don’t click anything in the email — including the unsubscribe button. Sometimes the safest click is no click at all. Taking a few extra seconds can help protect your inbox, reduce spam, and keep scammers from knowing they reached a real person.