Article originally appeared on 02.02.21.
If you're like me, every morning when you check your email you find the same spam emails, even though you've unsubscribed what feels like hundreds of times.
Cannabis gummies? I unsubscribed to that yesterday.
Sketchy looking refinance company? Nope.
All-natural diabetes cure? I don't even have diabetes.
It seems like no matter how vigilant you are about hitting the spam button or moving these emails to your junk mail folder, the same ones keep coming day in and day out. Why is that?
Because these illegal scammers operate in the complete opposite way of legitimate marketers.
When you ask to be removed from a list by a law-abiding company, the emails stop. Let's say you signed up for a newsletter that no longer interests you or purchased something from an online retailer and are tired of its daily sales letter. By hitting the unsubscribe button you're usually taken off the list immediately.
That's because companies that are operating illegally are afraid of violating the CAN-SPAM laws put into place in 2003. These laws stipulate that "a visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism is present in all emails" and that "consumer opt-out requests are honored within 10 business days."
Now, when you open an email from illegal scammers, you may actually get more of their emails.
When these spam companies send you an email and you open it or hit unsubscribe, it confirms to them that your email address is viable. Most illegal spammers aren't targeting you specifically, they send millions of emails a day to random email addresses, some that they've fabricated out of thin air.
So by opening the email and hitting unsubscribe or reporting it as spam you are accidentally telling them, "I'm game."
"It's the wrong instinct cause of what ends up happening," Marc Maiffret, a former hacker, told NBC Chicago. "As soon as you hit unsubscribe, you're essentially saying x, y, z email address that had received it ... is active, there's actually somebody there."
What's worse is that by hitting the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email you may be opening yourself up to attack.
"In reality, that's usually an indicator to increase the level of things they send to you. We even see when you click unsubscribe, it'll take you to a website and the website will actually try and attack against your computer," Maiffret explained.
So the best thing to do if you see a spam email is not to open it. Instead, mark the checkbox next to the email, and then hit the spam button. Spammers get reports on which emails were opened, so be sure never to do so.
But whatever you do never hit unsubscribe on an illegal spam email.
"Don't hit unsubscribe if you don't know who it's from," Chicago-Kent Law Dean Harold Krent, a privacy expert, told NBC. "[The spammers] don't know there's an active being behind that email until you respond in some fashion. Once you do, it's ripe for the selling."
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Ketel Marte was brought to tears during an MLB game after facing a shameful fan taunt.
Baseball manager's poignant support for a player brought to tears after shameful fan taunt
Whether they’re expecting perfection from their favorite players or, worse, behaving callously toward opposing teams, sports fans often forget that athletes are human beings. But athletic competition has the ability to unify and uplift, even amid such painful and unpleasant encounters. Take, for example, a major-league baseball game held June 24, 2025 between the home team Chicago White Sox and visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.
A shameful low point occurred when Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte was at bat in the seventh inning. Per ESPN, a fan reportedly yelled out a comment regarding Marte’s late mother, Elpidia Valdez, who died in a 2017 car accident in the Dominican Republic. Team personnel, including manager Torey Lovullo, then requested the 22-year-old fan be ejected. (Though he was remorseful and admitted his actions were inappropriate, according to an ESPN source, he was nonetheless banned indefinitely from all MLB ballparks.) "We commend the White Sox for taking immediate action in removing the fan," the MLB said in a statement. Marte reportedly declined to comment.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
While the fan’s behavior is inexcusable, it did spark a powerful and inspiring moment. After hearing the comment, Marte was visibly upset, prompting Lovullo to walk on the field, put his arm around him, and offer some words of encouragement. "[I said,] 'I love you, and I’m with you, and we’re all together, and you’re not alone,'" Lovullo said in a post-game interview, as documented by The Rich Eisen Show. "'No matter what happens, no matter what was said or what you’re heard, that guy is an idiot.’"
According to Arizona Republic, Lovullo heard the fan’s comment but didn’t want to repeat it. “I looked right at [Marte] when I heard,” he said. “I looked right at him, and he looked at the person, as well. He put his head down and I could tell it had an immediate impact on him, for sure."
Elsewhere in the post-game interview, the manager called the moment "terrible" and reflected on why he stood up for Marte. "Fans are nasty, and fans go too far sometimes," he said. "I love my players, and I’m gonna protect them…I’ve known Ketel for nine years. He’s had some unbelievably great moments and some hardships as well and some really tough moments in his life. I know those. At the end of the day, we’re human beings, and we have emotions. I saw him hurting, and I wanted to protect him."
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
The following day, the Chicago White Sox X account sent out a message in support of Marte, writing, "We’re with you" and "Baseball is family." On The Rich Eisen Show, the show's host addressed the need to eradicate this kind of toxic athlete-fan interaction: "I was hearing [people saying], 'There’s no place for this in major league baseball.' There isn’t. There’s no place for this in our society. I understand that people are saying the MLB has got to do something about this. Fans have a right to heckle players—this is something that has happened forever…But there is a line."
In another recent, depressing sports moment with a beautiful coda, let’s look to Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the eventual champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. During the first quarter, Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon—a devastating injury that could potentially sideline him for most of the 2025-2026 season. Following the game, in a lovely display of sportsmanship, Thunder point-guard and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went to the Pacers locker room to check on his competitor. In a press conference, he said, "You just hate to see it, in sports in general. But in this moment, my heart dropped for him. I can't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It’s so unfortunate."
- YouTubewww.youtube.com