Have you been receiving tons of spam emails from dating sites you’ve probably never heard of? Maybe you are trying to find an important work email but it’s buried deep under these annoying emails. The truth is, you’re not alone. Dating sites have really upped their game and now they use all sorts of tricks to get new members.
The following are some of the reasons why you could be getting spam emails from dating sites:
1. You knowingly or unknowingly signed up for it
As we are surfing the internet, most of us visit hundreds of pages, some of which have various pop-up ads and offers that not many pay attention to. How many times have you entered your email address on a website without reading the terms and conditions of how the website plans to use it? Many times I bet. Dating sites could be using affiliated sites to get your email without you knowing. You may also have visited a dating site and entered your email address when signing up and got tricked into accepting emails.
2. Phishing attack
Nowadays, you never know where a phishing attack will come from. For instance, someone could get your contact information through one of those Facebook games, offers, and quizzes. Most Facebook contests and quizzes are just meant to capture and mine data. There are also those websites that require you to make a quick registration to access some “free” resources. It could be a trap. Be careful before clicking on anything on the internet.
3. The sender purchased an email list that has your email address
Such lists are purchased from people who legitimately collect such data to sell or hackers who use illegal means to access people’s information. This is illegal in most countries but it does happen. If the websites emailing you are legit, they must provide a way for you to unsubscribe. It’s usually hidden but since they have to do it by law, you will find it if you look hard enough. Try scrolling to the bottom of the email; it’s usually there. You can even contact them directly and ask them to remove your email address from their list and they’ll be forced to oblige.
However, if the dating sites emailing you are professional spammers, it’s much harder to stop it. Trying to use the unsubscribe button could be a trick to confirm that your email is valid and active making the situation even worse.
The following are some of the things you can try to stop such emails:
1. Use Spam Filters
Spam filters are designed to detect unwanted and unsolicited emails blocking them from entering your inbox. This can help you drastically cut down on the spam emails you receive, but it won’t stop all of them.
2. Don’t open spam emails
If you spot an email from such dating sites that you know is spam, do not open it. If you do open it, do not click on any of the links in there no matter how enticing they are.
3. Never reply
I know you probably have thought of replying to such emails to tell the sender you no longer want to receive them. Don’t. Replying increases the security risk and it also lets them know that the email is active so they can send more.
4. Always check privacy policies
Privacy policies are meant to protect you from such threats. If you always accept everything on the internet without so much as reading a sentence of the privacy policy, there’s a high chance that you will agree to spam emails especially when the dating site hides behind an affiliated site.
5. Be careful with forwarded emails
A harmless looking forwarded email from friends and family could expose your email address to people you don’t want. Make sure your email address is not published to other people who may have received or forwarded the same email.
6. The Spam Folder is waiting
The spam folder was invented for exactly this purpose. Whenever you see an email from such dating sites, mark it as spam and create a mail filtering rule that sends such emails to the spam folder or deletes them instantly. You’ll still be getting the emails but you’ll never have to see them. However, this can take a while especially if you are dealing with many spammers and there’s always a chance that a few will slip through and get to your inbox.
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