Why does every mail subscription seem to have an unsubscribe button? I have seen this even for the scammiest subscriptions.
In: 14
They probably use some widely used mailing software to manage sending e-mails to their mailing list/subscribers. Most of these software packages have a setting where you can give the recipient an option to unsubscribe.
Lots of companies that offer e-mail to the standard person (gmail, yahoo) might be more likely to put incoming e-mails without an unsubscribe option on their spam list. If Google puts your company e-mails in the spam box by default, it’s much worse (for the advertiser) than giving people the option to unsubscribe.
It is a legal requirement.
If you are a scammer there is another reason, If you us it they do know what mail address it it is from so they knew it is an account that is used and someone did read the mail and it did not just end up in a spam filter.
So they can validate that it is an account that is in use and it the address could be used for som phishing attack or just spam.
Also: some mail clients (gmail, for example) will add an unsubscribe option when they detect something that appears to be from a mailing list. That might be what you’re noticing.
Side question, why does every unsubscribe form have the exact same survey? Moat of the times they have identical choices down to the word, like “I no longer want to receive these messages”, “I never signed up for this list”, etc. No matter the type of content, the country of origin, or whatever, they are all the same. At one point it feels like they’re all made by the same software company.
Short answer: It’s a law called the CAN-SPAM Act which requires email list senders to include an unsubscribe method.
As with all laws though, it just gives the scammers a framework that allows them to dodge the law. The most common dodge I’ve heard is that they use the fact that you clicked on unsubscribe to confirm that you’re a real person so that makes your contact information “verified” and they can sell it to another “business” to still make a profit off you. If they’re a more reputable company, the link should actually work and help you remove yourself from the list.