In short. An “unsubscribe” link tells the sender that your address is active. If you signed up for the list yourself, unsubscribe: that’s the normal way to leave it. If you didn’t, don’t follow the links in the email, and report it as spam. It’s easiest to unsubscribe with your inbox’s own Unsubscribe button, not a link in the message.
What an unsubscribe link can give away
Spammers send email to lists of addresses they’ve collected from websites or generated with software [1, 2], and they don’t know which of those addresses are active. Following any link in such an email confirms that your address is active [2]. The “unsubscribe” link in spam is often there for exactly that: to collect active addresses and send them more spam [2]. Replying to spam, even to ask to be removed, confirms the same thing [3].
A list you signed up for yourself is different: it already has your address, and you can unsubscribe from it [1]. Unsubscribing tells it you no longer want its emails. If you unsubscribe through a link, the list’s website will also see your IP address, like any website you open.
In a phishing email, the “unsubscribe” link is no safer than any other link: how to spot a phishing email.
When to unsubscribe, and when to report spam
- You signed up yourself, for news from a store, a service or a website. Unsubscribe with the Unsubscribe button in your inbox or the link in the message [6].
- You didn’t sign up and don’t know the sender. Report the email as spam and don’t follow its links. Your email provider will move it to Spam, and your report helps the spam filter recognize emails like it [1, 4, 5].
Treat emails about loans and credit the same way. If you gave that company your address, for example when you took out a loan or filled in an application, unsubscribe. If you didn’t, report the email as spam. An email about a loan you never asked for is worth checking against the signs of phishing, especially if it asks for your card details or a code from a text message.
How to unsubscribe in Gmail
Open an email from the list and, next to the sender’s name, click Unsubscribe. In the pop-up, click Unsubscribe or Go to website: Gmail shows the second option when the sender asks you to unsubscribe on their website [6]. To see all of a sender’s lists, on the left, click More > Manage subscriptions [6].
To report an email as spam, select it and click Report spam at the top [4].
How to unsubscribe in Yandex Mail
Open any email from the list and click Unsubscribe: the email moves to Trash. If unsubscribing fails, for example because the email had a wrong unsubscribe link, the list’s emails will go to Spam [1]. If there’s no Unsubscribe button, Yandex suggests adding the sender’s address to the blacklist or setting up a filter that deletes their emails [1].
To report an email as spam, select it and click “It’s spam!”. After several such reports, similar emails start going to Spam on their own. Report emails one at a time: several emails from one sender reported at once count as one report [1].
How to unsubscribe in Mail.ru
In the bottom left corner, open «Настройки» (Settings) > «Все настройки» (All settings) > «Управление рассылками» (Manage mailing lists), and click «Отписаться» (Unsubscribe) next to a list you don’t want. All the lists you’re subscribed to are gathered there; emails you’ve already received stay in your mailbox [7].
To report an email as spam, open it and click «Спам» (Spam) at the top. Further emails from that sender will go to Spam [5].
What one-click unsubscribe is
So that your email app or provider can unsubscribe you itself, a mailing list puts a link to its website, or an address for an unsubscribe email, in a technical header of the message called List-Unsubscribe [8].
One-click unsubscribe is defined in the RFC 8058 standard, and it lets you unsubscribe without leaving your inbox: the list gives an unsubscribe address in the message, and when you click the button, your email app or provider sends the request there itself, with no confirmation pages. Under the standard, that request must not carry cookies or other data that would link it to your earlier visits to websites [9]. Google requires it in marketing and subscription emails from anyone who sends more than 5,000 emails a day to Gmail addresses [10].
Even one-click unsubscribing tells the sender your address is active, though: the standard says so itself [9].
How unsubscribing will work in Methmail
If a mailing list supports one-click unsubscribe, you’ll be able to unsubscribe with a single button. Our server, not your device, will send the request: the sender will see our IP address, not yours. The sender will learn that your address is active and that you unsubscribed. Our server will see the unsubscribe address as it sends the request and won’t record it. If a list only accepts unsubscribing by email, that email will go from your address, like any email to another provider.
More on the page Tracking in email: what Methmail will do about it.
Questions
Is it safe to click unsubscribe? If you signed up for the list yourself and the email really is from it, yes: that’s the normal way to leave it. If you’re not sure, check it against the signs of phishing. If the email came from someone you don’t know, following the link confirms to the spammer that your address is active [2]. It’s better to report such an email as spam.
Why do I still get emails after unsubscribing? Unsubscribing doesn’t work instantly: Gmail warns it may take a few days for the emails to stop [6]. Also, one sender can run several lists, and unsubscribing from one may not stop the others [6]. If the emails keep coming, report them as spam.
Can I unsubscribe without visiting the sender’s website? Yes, if the list supports one-click unsubscribe: then the unsubscribe button in your inbox sends the request itself [9]. If not, Gmail, for example, may offer to take you to the sender’s website [6].
What’s next
- Tracking in email: what Methmail will do about it
- How to spot a phishing email
- Temporary email, alias or private inbox?
Sources
- Yandex: Fighting spam. https://yandex.com/support/yandex-360/customers/mail/en/web/spam.html
- CISA: Reducing Spam, revised November 20, 2019. https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/reducing-spam
- Microsoft: 10 tips on how to help reduce spam. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/10-tips-on-how-to-help-reduce-spam
- Google: Report spam in Gmail. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1366858?hl=en
- Mail help (in Russian): How to send a message to spam, updated September 16, 2025. https://help.mail.ru/mail/letters/spam/sendtospam/
- Google: Unsubscribe from an email. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/15433283?hl=en
- Mail help (in Russian): How to unsubscribe from mailing lists and delete their messages, updated September 8, 2025. https://help.mail.ru/mail/letters/inbox/mailing/
- RFC 2369: The Use of URLs as Meta-Syntax for Core Mail List Commands and their Transport through Message Header Fields. IETF, July 1998. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2369
- RFC 8058: Signaling One-Click Functionality for List Email Headers. IETF, January 2017. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8058
- Google: Email sender guidelines. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126?hl=en