A public pledge: we don't read unsolicited bulk email, we don't click anything in it, and we don't buy anything it offers. The more people sign, the more visible the message becomes.
The pledge
We've spent years testing what spammers actually sell — and we're convinced: anything that arrives as spam is either rock-bottom quality or plain fraud. Services pitched by spam usually come from providers abroad who barely speak your language or charge two to three times the going rate. Hence this pledge.
Join in
Background
Sending spam costs next to nothing – a thousand emails or ten million makes hardly any difference to the sender. That's why the business pays off as soon as a tiny fraction of recipients clicks a link or places an order. Every response also reveals that the address is active, and that address then gets even more spam.
Signing commits you to three things: deleting spam unread, not clicking any of its links and not buying anything offered via spam. Nobody checks up on you – it's a personal decision you make public. The more people consistently ignore spam, the less it pays off.
You enter your name and email address, and optionally your website, and receive a confirmation email (which also mentions free webmaster tools from our network). Your email address is never published; it also prevents the same address from signing twice. Your name appears in the “Who's signed” list – right away without a website, or with a website once our daily automated check finds the badge from the email on your site. We then link to your website as well. We show the total number of signatures once at least ten people have signed.
More on spam and phishing (in German) in our blog.
FAQ
Collectively, yes: spam only pays off because a huge volume of email gets a handful of responses. Everyone who consistently refuses to click or buy lowers that rate – and signing publicly encourages others to do the same.
No. Only your name and, if applicable, your website are shown publicly. We use your email address for the confirmation email and to prevent duplicate signatures.
If you entered a website, your entry only goes live once our daily check finds the badge on your site. You'll find the embed code in the confirmation email.
Not in obvious spam: the click only confirms that your address is active and may lead to a fraudulent site. For newsletters you subscribed to yourself, however, the unsubscribe link is the right way to go.
If you entered login details, change that password immediately – and everywhere else you use it. If you gave away bank or card details, contact your bank right away. If you opened a file, scan your device with an up-to-date antivirus program.