Lately I started getting news/promotion emails from Avast. I unsubscribed several times and marked the emails as spam, but it looks like Avast managed to outwit both of those measures through using dummy addresses. See attached image.
Did Avast become a spammer?
Hi,
We have several newsletters and you were not unsubscribed from all of them. Your email address has now been removed from all of them.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.
What is 7238189.xt.local, and why is Avast using it?
Hi,
Can you provide more context, please? A screenshot might help. Please see this article on how to generate a screenshot. https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/Create-screenshot
I did in the original post.
Hi,
This will be in reference to the Avast Mailing list you unsubscribed from.
I don’t understand what you’re saying.
Again, my question is: what is 7238189.xt.local, and why is Avast using it in addition to the @emails.avast.com mailing address if there’s no intention to get around spam and unsubscribes?
(See original post for the image.)
XT.local is in general used for mailing lists in gmail - 7238189.xt.local thus refers to the Avast Mailing list you unsubscribed from.
And my question is why do you use it? What’s wrong with just the regular @emails.avast.com address?
Hi,
All newsletters are sent from our email address to addresses on the mailing list. Sending newsletters to a mailing list (a list containing email addresses) is standard practice. The mailing list might have a name that looks generic, but that is entirely normal. All newsletters sent to such mailing lists are still sent from our avast.com email address.
You’re still not answering my question so your responses aren’t helpful.
For the umpteenth time, why the need for “7238189.xt.local” and different numbers for each mailing list, if not to evade spam filters and unsubscribes? Why not only use the @emails.avast.com address?
No response…
Very telling!
And now I just got another Avast spam email (image attached), so I’m wondering whether you’re still offering your “sincerest apologies” as written above:
Unfortunately, I think you’re correct.
I’ll be using my PC and an actual Avast ad will sometimes pop up, trying to get me to buy more services!
I’m at the point where I will move to a completely different company if it happens again.
I understand that everyone’s got to make a living but their constant sales tactics are getting beyond belief.
Adrian
I think you got a proper answer already.
They don’t email every single subscriber separately. They use a system called “email list”, so it holds a lot of people’s addresses in that group, and that’s why you see those “xt.local” there.
So, it works like this: every separate thing people can subscribe to is handled by a separate mailing list, that contains all those people who are subscribed. It’s used to easy organization of such subscriptions.
I researched it a bit, and turned out it’s a common problem in general with people having problems with stopping spam from various companies who use email lists like that to mass send emails.
But, I can offer you a solution.
See this post I’m linking from one reddit discussion about the issue with such kinds of spam in general:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GMail/comments/lboly0/gmail_spam_what_is_xtlocal/h2zsgqy/
People in replies confirmed there that this method works!
And in general, letting google deal with spam automatically isn’t the best way. It’s actually a lot more efficient to create various filters for your mails. Some could automatically put emails into a Spam folder, and some could auto-sort your emails to different categories (labels) so you can have emails from different sites completely separate from each other.
Marking an email as spam when it’s actually a subscription isn’t the proper way to handle it.
If you subscribed to an email, then unsubscribe. If it’s unsolicited, then it belongs in the spam folder.
Obviously.
But, I think you’re missing the point of what that person was talking about.
They DID unsubscribe, and later they were assured by the Avast Support that they were unsubbed from everything,
but days later they again received emails from Avast, as if nothing changed.
Avast has already stated that the user did not unsubscribe from all subscriptions.
Please read before making comments that aren’t needed.
Please, stop skipping comments when reading threads:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=308894.msg1669116#msg1669116
There’s a quote in that message referring to a comment left by the Avast dev, who stated that they were now removed from all subscriptions (and that was stated several days before receiving more spam):
Ha! That problem is even older than Avast’s email spam. For years I’ve been getting pop ups that clearly connect to things I was browsing about at that very moment (or within a few minutes), so it’s no secret that Avast constantly sends you pop ups based on your activity in real time.
No I didn’t. The Avast dev lied when he said he removed me from all their lists, and that I should accept their “apologies”.
Thank you.
Please read the whole thread.
The user (i.e. me) absolutely did unsubscribe multiple times and also marked those messages as spam. Avast slyly circumvents that. And as my earlier messages indicate, Avast isn’t honest in what they write.
There is always a time delay between the time you ask to be removed and the time that this removal actually takes effect.
Almost all subscriptions I’ve ever cancelled took a while till they actually stopped.
Enjoy the holidays. 