Spam makes me angry. Do you have a course to help with that?

Dear British Association of Anger Management,

Thank you for your unsolicited email, inviting me to a course on anger management.

You know what makes me angry? Flipping spam makes me angry.

I don’t remember signing up to receive emails from you, but maybe I lashed out at one of my work colleagues, and perhaps they thought I could do with some help and so gave my email address to you.

Even so, I would have hoped that you would have followed industry best practices and confirmed via a double opt-in that I *really* wanted to sign up for your messages.

The best mailing lists not only require people to ask to receive their messages, but then verify the subscription just in case an email address was given to you by by mistake or by a mischief-maker.

I’m delighted that you’ve had such success helping people deal with their anger issues. Help me with mine, by not just honouring my unsubscribe request – but also adopting a better standard in future, confirming that…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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