Well, let's be clear: I wouldn't advise clicking anything in a V1@GRA-type likely illegal spam message.
But if we're talking about newsletters your don't remember signing up for or marketing emails or invites to a new social network, the unsubscribe usually works and will almost never harm you. AFAIK it's a myth that there's this huge black market for "valid" email addresses. Spammers don't want a list of people who click unsubscribe; they ain't gonna buy anything. There are way easier ways to find email addresses on the internet. And it would be crazy (and possibly illegal) for any sort of semi-legit company to sell their unsubscribe list.
Anything send by an actual company -- especially anything sent through any of the major email providers -- will almost certainly have a working unsubscribe. It's almost impossible to send a message in MailChimp without a working unsubscribe.
But if we're talking about newsletters your don't remember signing up for or marketing emails or invites to a new social network, the unsubscribe usually works and will almost never harm you. AFAIK it's a myth that there's this huge black market for "valid" email addresses. Spammers don't want a list of people who click unsubscribe; they ain't gonna buy anything. There are way easier ways to find email addresses on the internet. And it would be crazy (and possibly illegal) for any sort of semi-legit company to sell their unsubscribe list.
Anything send by an actual company -- especially anything sent through any of the major email providers -- will almost certainly have a working unsubscribe. It's almost impossible to send a message in MailChimp without a working unsubscribe.