[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

So I started clicking on the "Unsubscribe" links on the emails, which takes me to a new site where I enter my email and hit the "unsubscribe" button.

How stupid, in pleasant terms, am I for doing this?

I am not trying to sell you something or an expert but I have stayed in a Holiday Inn.

Here are the facts:
-Spammers also make money selling their lists to others.
-Spammers make more money on verified addresses. Unsubscribing from unsolicited mail just tells the spammer that your address is valid.

Therefore, when you hit unsubscribe, you are increasing the spam you will get (unless it is a valid business that you gave your address to). If you filter or ignore them they will eventually fade away but without a filter that may take a long time. There are many spam filter options (a lot of them free) that work for non-business needs. Most people start with a new address (with a slight variation of the old one so everyone who knows them will remember it) and be far more selective as to who you give your address to. I have an address for friends and family and a junk address for business solicitations that I will not use after the one time. The junk addy gets cleared once every 3 months.

YMMV.