Yes, many here use aliases a.k.a. canaries in this case on mail providers that support this or on their own mail servers they self host.
- One can change their email with each vendor to use a specific alias. Fastmail is an example of one of the mail providers that supports this. Create unique aliases for each vendor and put the vendor name in the comment field of the web interface but keep the alias generic and realistic enough that the vendor does not reject it or realize that it is a canary. Once you are confident you have done this for ever thing you interact with, create a rule to dump all emails from your previous email address into a folder, mark as read and maybe check it once a week or month, flagging the UCE as spam. Fastmail have several domains you can create aliases on, and/or you can also use your own domains.
When a company starts abusing one of your aliases, you now know who leaked or cross-marketed your email address. You can create a rule to move emails to that alias into a folder and mark as read. Or if its 100% garbage, a rule to move emails sent to that alias to Trash and set the retention policy on Trash to a month. Optionally contacting them and voicing your dissatisfaction and that you have voted with your wallet.
- Specific to your Unsubscribe request, mail providers like Fastmail also support making rules on email content, so one could add a rule saying if the Body contains "unsubscribe" to move it to Trash and mark as read.
- Another method which only a small set of people here use is to self host email which is a big topic in and of itself then create DISCARD rules in Postfix and/or block CIDR blocks of email campaign providers yes, this is heavy handed and can drop non UCE. On my self hosted mail servers I can REJECT an email and give the spammer a friendly message of my choice. So if the body contains "unsubscribe" I can REJECT the email, at the risk of that company deleting my account which saves me the time of deleting it.
> - Specific to your Unsubscribe request, mail providers like Fastmail also support making rules on email content, so one could add a rule saying if the Body contains "unsubscribe" to move it to Trash and mark as read.
This is a great idea. I would love to have a script that also reports it as spam. Sorry to the "legit" emailers, but it's really not my problem. Even the "legit" emailers abuse people with their "Sorry we made a mistake" shenanigans trying to get people to open their stupid content.
If I want to be updated on your "Today Only Black Friday Deal" or be pestered to "Chip in $5" to your stupid political campaign, I'll visit your website for those updates. If I need to be reminded about your awesome product, then your product isn't really that awesome.
I would love to have a script that also reports it as spam.
In self hosted email setups this is very easy to do reporting to SpamCop and others. Someone else would have to chime in if they know of commercial solutions that allow custom scripting or custom reject messages. Most of my experience is around self hosted but that is a very big topic.
For the domains I have pointed at Fastmail, they do a decent job figuring out if something is spam. They also give the option to adjust the score/threshold at which something is spam and the threshold at which they just discard the email. This is off by default. Their web interface allows reporting the spam.
Yes, many here use aliases a.k.a. canaries in this case on mail providers that support this or on their own mail servers they self host.
- One can change their email with each vendor to use a specific alias. Fastmail is an example of one of the mail providers that supports this. Create unique aliases for each vendor and put the vendor name in the comment field of the web interface but keep the alias generic and realistic enough that the vendor does not reject it or realize that it is a canary. Once you are confident you have done this for ever thing you interact with, create a rule to dump all emails from your previous email address into a folder, mark as read and maybe check it once a week or month, flagging the UCE as spam. Fastmail have several domains you can create aliases on, and/or you can also use your own domains.
When a company starts abusing one of your aliases, you now know who leaked or cross-marketed your email address. You can create a rule to move emails to that alias into a folder and mark as read. Or if its 100% garbage, a rule to move emails sent to that alias to Trash and set the retention policy on Trash to a month. Optionally contacting them and voicing your dissatisfaction and that you have voted with your wallet.
- Specific to your Unsubscribe request, mail providers like Fastmail also support making rules on email content, so one could add a rule saying if the Body contains "unsubscribe" to move it to Trash and mark as read.
- Another method which only a small set of people here use is to self host email which is a big topic in and of itself then create DISCARD rules in Postfix and/or block CIDR blocks of email campaign providers yes, this is heavy handed and can drop non UCE. On my self hosted mail servers I can REJECT an email and give the spammer a friendly message of my choice. So if the body contains "unsubscribe" I can REJECT the email, at the risk of that company deleting my account which saves me the time of deleting it.