Spam from Flock

Couple of weeks ago I received a mail from a site called Flock. It said that some guy invited me to join their social network. I would expect whoever invites me somewhere to do it in personal mail, without giving my e-mail address around. However, some people don’t think before acting – one should expect such things.

I wasn’t interested in joining and left that mail unanswered. However, during the next few days I got an avalanche of mails from Flock. Apparently they subscribe every e-mail address they lay their hands on to their spam.

One of their e-mails contained an unsubscription link. I clicked on it, only to learn that I have been unsubscribed from this invitation, and will continue to receive other e-mails from Flock. (Probably these, or at least a part of them, can be unsubscribed too. After you make an account with Flock and fill in all your personal info they might like to have. Guess what for.)

Naturally, that was the “enough is enough” line. I blocked all mails from Flock for the entire mail hosting that holds my e-mail – happily, I am the one responsible for it. So, far, the only reaction have been one thank-you from another victim of Flock whose mail is hosted there.

I am not evil. If Flock sends me a notarized legally binding declaration that they stop all spamming activities, I will unblock them happily. Until then, they will stay on my hosting’s blacklist. Unsubscribes, even complete, for me or other specific people don’t count. Any attempts of theirs for communication other than sending such a declaration will be automatically deleted before reaching me.

My suggestion to all mail providers around is to do the same. Think on how much money you lose due to spam, and decide if you want these losses to increase, or to decrease.

(Update: Forgot to add that the “unsubscription” does not unsubscribe you. As expected – spammers are spammers. Strange, eh?)