Apparently, this is how the world of commerce works:
I was scrolling through my Fecesbook feed and saw an ad for a backpack that included a removable expanding "closet" feature that allowed you to put all your clothing for seven days into a series of open sections and then compress them with some fastened straps and put the compacted bundle in the backpack. Another section held your laptop; various other features in and on it held other essentials. So I clicked on the video to see the details. Impressive, but the $265 price, and some reviews that said the closet didn't really work, was enough to pass on it and move on.
Suddenly, as I kept scrolling down — and I mean seconds later — a series of ads for OTHER travel luggage kept appearing amongst the posts, as if the MERE clicking on ONE ad sent a signal to the Farcebook accountants that I would be interested in numerous ads for products in the same general category, regardless of why I clicked on the first ad, or whether my interest was more than mere curiosity on a specific thing that caught my attention. And, immediately they all appeared, as if they figured that if I didn't see them at once, my hunger for such products would vaporize in minutes, a hunger I didn't even have.
I spent a good two hours yesterday going through my emails and unsubscribing from a variety of them, mostly from investment and financial services. I don't even know how I got on their lists. Clearly, in a similar manner, having ONCE clicked on some site out of curiosity, I was now a prospect. Or, more likely, some sites I visited for some other purposes, like health products, or a webinar on boosting my immune system, SELL their lists to a variety of other promoters, and thus I am the target of those who think I'm a good prospect.
Now, some of the unsubscribe sites, after I click to unsubscribe, say it may take up to 72 hours to process and finally stop seeing their emails. But here's the insanity of commerce at work... today, I noticed not a decrease, but an increase, perhaps 400%, of the same and similar email ads, some from the same ones I unsubscribed from yesterday, only MORE of those than before, and then some NEW ones from sources I never saw before.
I understand why the luggage makers might want to hop on the caravan of ads being flogged at me AFTER I showed POSSIBLE interest in ONE product, striking while the iron was still hot. But why would the same persons/companies — who I just showed a vote of "no thanks" to — send me MORE of the same, and then pass my name on to others of similar ilk to INCREASE my inbox supply of the very type of product/service I just told them I was NOT interested in?
And now that I've had to spend even more hours RE-unsubscribing to some, and first-time unsubscribing to others, I can only imagine that my inbox tomorrow will have a 600% increase in such stuff, and so the cycle grows exponentially until I get hundreds of unwanted emails every day, with no way to end the sorcerer's apprentice-like inundation.
I remember when we used to complain about junk mail filling up our physical mailboxes. Well, I don't see much of that anymore, as the expense of targeting non-targets was eating into their profits. But with it costing little or no more to bombard thousands or millions of email inboxes, there's little reason not to do so, just as for every thousand persons who ignore some "Nigerian prince's" offer to share some millions of dollars with you, one sucker takes the bait and makes the scam worthwhile.
BTW, Fakebook doesn't seem to mind that many ads they run are outright scams, or deceptive, or never even send the products they promote, even when many victims post their complaints right there on the post with the ads. I know Fecesbook must be aware of those complaints because they monitor every one of my posts for signs of non-existent misinformation, "hate" speech, or violations of their inane and vague "community standards." Apparently, lying and fraud don't violate their financial standards when commerce is king.
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As the unwanted emails keep multiplying with each unsubscribe, I'm trying two new tactics. First, if they give me the option during the unsubscribe to report it as spam, I do so; this may give them the understanding that I am willing to report them elsewhere and external pressure will be brought to bear on them. Second, I am putting each post into the junk folder rather than just deleting them. This may train the email program to recognize future iterations of the post, or the sender, and dump future posts into the junk folder without me having to do so.