Fighting the 'unsubscribe' email scam

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Do you ever feel like your email inbox has been overtaken by endless, unwanted messages? Emails bombarding you with limited-time offers, deals, and savings, or ads for new products, none of which you need or asked for?

As annoying as they may be, and as tempting as it may be to "unsubscribe" from them, clicking that link could lead to an even bigger problem.

While some of those messages are legitimate, from established companies hoping to gain new customers, Virtual Chief Information Security Officer Jerod Brennen said scammers also use those emails as an avenue to gain access to your personal information.

"If you see anything that looks off, then maybe it's a scammer who's adding that or using this unsubscribe attack," Brennen said.

The way it works is pretty simple: cybercriminals create emails that offer you the option to cancel a subscription. Instead, the link leads you to an unsafe site or installs malware onto your device, just by clicking on a link.

So, before you click, Brennen suggested hovering over the link.

"So, when you see the word 'unsubscribe' and you put your mouse over it, before you click, it's going to show you where that link goes," Brennen said.

Also, take a closer look at where the email originated.

"If you've got an email that's landed in your inbox and it says it's from an organization that you don't remember signing up for, but then, when you look at the email address, it's a Gmail address, maybe that's a red flag that says this isn't something that I can trust," Brennen said.

You can also take a different approach, like Brennen.

"I've created a folder in my inbox that I call 'Unsubscribe' and I've created a rule, that if I see the word 'unsubscribe' in email, I automatically put them in my folder," Brennen said. "And then, what I can do, instead of unsubscribing, I can select all the emails in that inbox, glance at them, see if there are any I might be interested in, and if the answer's 'no,' select all, delete. And then, the attacker never gets the chance to target me with that attack because I never opened the email."

Antivirus company Norton offers additional information about the scam here.