Received a spam email today - as I do every day. I get about 20<30 a day.
They all have unsubscribe buttons to click (though I never subscribed to them in the first place) but one of them demands both the email address I wish to unsubscribe (fair) AND my telephone number (NOT fair).

I never click on the unsubscribe buttons. It how they know that the email address they used is valid. I just delete them and move on.

Yeh, do not click anything.

If you check all the links, it's all the same. The link to their "page" as well as the unsubscribe link etc.

They just want you to provide data and/or validate your email is still active.

So how I stop them?

email filters

I'm still using Thunderbird instead of any kind of webmail, I have epic filters set up.

if it's in gmail, just mark them as spam, and eventually gmail will send them directly into your spam folder.

Squeak =^..^= : Only practical way is to use filters. If you have your mail on gmail etc, one of the major mail hosters, they usually do that for you as they get every spam in thousands of copies and can easily identify and sort out most of it.

Clara 🦄 : me to, I have LOTS of filters, but stil they get through with like 10-20 a day. It's just getting more again as it's getting closer to christmas.

Depending on who they are and where you are, unsubscribing is fine and probably a good idea. If the spam is coming from an established business and you live in a place where there are reasonable anti-spam laws, unsubscribing should work and the company can be fined if they don't stop. Requiring your phone number is ridiculous.

If it's generic spam or an obvious scam then "unsubscribing" is probably not a good idea for the reasons already given.

I 90% use Gmail fur my domestic and my travel agency work - and that is 99% spam free. I used to use Outlook and that was good - but have used Outlook fur my squeak at squeakstream address and it is 80% junk. Also use squeak at petlover and that gets zero spam.

This is the one that wants the phone number...

Oh, that's such a scam email. don't bother "unsubscribing" The only ones you should unsubscribe are places you've bought things from, like Target, Walmart, or other legit online retailers. Anyone offering bogus health/financial bs are best just sent to junk.

((other reason I use Thunderbird, it has a "smart" junk detector, while it does take a couple of months to train properly and I still check my spam folder for mis-caught stuff, it does wonders))

Downside, there's nothing near as useful for cellphones :/

Yeah, anything that claims to lower your glycemia levels in under 5 seconds is a scam

And Amplifetechco is an odd filler page with appliances . .

...with no "real" Conttact Us, Clara 🦄 .

Poor squeak, you're not as bitter and cynical as me, but I don't want you to be either.