Many people are concerned about the amount of junk mail they receive in their email box. Like your post office mailbox, you cannot control who sends you an email; you can only throw it away after you receive it.
Some emails will offer you an “unsubscribe” function. If the junk email you are receiving is from a “legitimate” business, feel free to unsubscribe. The WalMarts and LL Beans and Dunkin’ Dounuts of the business world will honor your request and remove you from their marketing list.
Other emailers—those who send nasty and persistent emails—do not function in the same way. DO NOT “unsubscribe” from those emails. Clicking the unsubscribe link in the “Camp Lejeune bad water” emails (or those like it) will not get you off the spammer’s list, and will probably increase the amount of junk you receive. Why? When you “unsubscribe” from those illegitimate business emails, you tell the spammer 1) The email address they used to reach you is still valid, and 2) Someone at that address is actively reading the email. Once they know they have a good address with a live person on the other end, they will sell that address to other spam emailers, and the bulk junk mail you receive will increase!To sum up: There is very little you can do to reduce junk email. A legitimate business will honor their unsubscribe link. Don’t bother “unsubscribing” from the really gross stuff—you’ll probably make matters worse.