StopScum

Just Trash the Spam: DO NOT opt-out

I'm sure you've seen the Spam selling pills, mortgages, porn, get rich schemes, etc. This junk often includes a link to remove your email address from the Spam list. This opt-out is a scam to verify your email address and rarely removes you from the list. What it does do is tell the Spammer that the email address works and a real life person is reading the email. If you do click the opt-out link the Spammer uses your address to not only send more Spam but sell it a zillion times to other Spammers. This will definitely increase the amount of Spam you receive so NEVER opt-out.

Other creative ploys used by Spammers

Recently, a bunch of Webmasters received Spam, which was sent to their Whois email address, which offered to purchase their domain for a lot of money. A few of them answered the email which provided the Spammer with verification that the email address works with a human reading the email. Naturally, the Spammer sold the email address to other Spammers. If the email sounds to good to be true or makes unreasonable claims then you should trash it and not respond.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and we guarantee you that the Spam Kings are ready to capitalize on this holiday which produces about a 40% increase in email which ask you to visit a site and pick up your Valentines Day ecard. Legitimate postcard sites will always tell you the name of the person who sent you the ecard and often provide a validation number to enter so you can retrieve the ecard. If the senders name doesn't look familiar we suggest you trash the email and never provide any other data to the postcard site. We can also guarantee you that some of these Valentine's Day ecards will contain Virus infected attachments which you should never open. Naturally, your machine should have the latest Virus definitions installed, the current Windows update, a robust anti-Spyware tool, and sit behind a firewall.

It was a pleasure stealing your money

Their is no such thing as a "Do Not email List" on planet earth. Sometimes they are known as "Global Spam Remove Lists", "Unsubscribe List" or "Opt-out Service" and they normally ask you to pay money with the promise that your actions will insure that you won't receive any more Spam. We don't care what the site says, how slick the site may appear, or any claims made by the site. They are all a Scam and you should never pay money and or submit your data. For example, UnsubscribeNow.org is a Scam which claims you won't receive Spam after you pay $34.95 per year. This Scam artist even sends Spam to promote the site. As if stealing your money wasn't enough, many of these Scam sites also sell your email address to other Spam Kings which insures the volume of Spam you receive will increase.