(Would you like to learn about some businesses that have spammed me?)
Never try to unsubscribe from spam. There are two reasons: 1. You didn't subscribe in the first place. Why is the burden on you to unsubscribe? 2. Spammers Lie. The majority of spammers are con artists. Their "unsubscribe" page either won't work at all, or worse, will mark you as having a valid email address, meaning you're getting more spam! So the rule is: never try to unsubscribe from spam. This is a story of one time I broke that rule.
Several years ago an Illinois based music company was spamming my work email address. I had never interacted with this company. Indeed, I had absolutely no interest in what they were advertising: music shows in Illinois. If I had interacted with the company, I would have done so through my personal email address, not my work address.
While the company in question was clearly spamming, they otherwise looked like a legit business. So I foolishly complained several times, asking to be taken off their list. The spam continued to flow.
Frustrated, I complained to the spammer's internet provider. Apparently their provider poked the spammer, because I finally got a response. This is how the company chose to reply:
Hey idiot, you know why you didn't get unsubscribed? You replied and your reply only included a NAME and no EMAIL ADDRESS. Now, we can remove you from the list. Go eat some more cheese.
How professional. Apparently I had somehow managed to repeatedly send them email without having my email address attached. This from my work email account which I use daily. I'm quite sure my email address was sitting in the "To:" line of every message I send out. I sure as heck didn't remove it from the message I sent them.
I received the above claim that "now we can remove you from the list" on March 11, 2003. I continued to get spammed approximately twice a month for another year.
Spammers Lie. Don't bother trying to unsubscribe.
Now, in June of 2005 someone associated with the company wrote me, apologizing and explaining that the person responsible for both the spam and the unprofessional response above no longer worked for the company. The writer seemed sincere. The goal of my spam web pages is to shame otherwise legit businesses into stopping spam, so it seemed only fair to give the company a chance to turn over a new leaf. Thus, I will no longer give the name of the company. The only unfortunate part is that this company provided me with such a good story, and now I need to tell the story with the name removed. Ah well.