You may want to think twice before clicking this 1 popular link next time you get an unwanted email — plus why good ‘email hygiene’ plays an essential role in your financial health

When ‘unsubscribe’ can backfire

Clicking unsubscribe feels productive, yet it can be dangerous. Even legit-looking messages can hide bad links.

The FBI logged more than 298,000 phishing complaints in 2023, and bogus unsubscribe links remain a favorite tactic. DNSfilter, a cybersecurity firm, told the Wall Street Journal the aforementioned one in every 644 clicks it tracked landed on a malicious website.

Even if the page you reach is harmless, the act of clicking tells scammers you interact with links, making you a bigger target down the road.

"If it's a bad actor that's sending this email to you, and the email looks legit, but at the bottom it says, 'Click here to unsubscribe,' why would that link be any safer than 'Click here to see if you won $5,000'?” Heidi Mitchell, a contributing writer to the Wall Street Journal, told WGAL.

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Email hygiene that protects your money

A single bad link can cost you cash or hours of cleanup. To lower the odds:

• Skip every link from senders you do not recognize, even ones labeled unsubscribe.
• Navigate to the company’s real website on your own and change email settings there.
• If you do not have an account, mark the message as spam so future notes bypass your inbox.
• Create a burner email for coupons, contests and other signups so your main address stays clean.

When in doubt, do not click. Your wallet will thank you.