Waking up to a couple of texts from an unknown person or purported friend on a social media platform might seem normal. At least most of us are all in, for a good time with old and new friends.
However, getting emails from sites or pages you didn’t subscribe to comes off with a bad vibe, because your email address is quite personal and wouldn’t have gotten into the hands of these sites without a good explanation.
This is the case most people find themselves in when it comes to receiving emails from popular adult dating site Zoosk. How did Zoosk get my email address? Why all these messages?
These questions do come up, but don’t beat yourself on them because this article will relieve your curiosity with possible answers to your questions.
6 Different Ways Zoosk Could Have Gotten Your Email Address?
Most dating sites like Zoosk send out emails to their subscribers with notifications about their previous actions on the site.
They also send these messages to others who may not be subscribers, and if you’re a victim of this mailing rampage, then one of these reasons points to how they got your email.
- They got it when you signed up
- They got it through a referral
- They might’ve gotten it from a scammer
- They got it from an affiliate dating website
- They might’ve gotten it through a mailing list
- They might’ve gotten it from social media
They Got It When You Signed Up
This is the most basic and simplest way through which Zoosk can get your email address. You usually consent to it, becomes you must’ve visited their website at some point.
Whenever you try to sign up to any website, even if it is not a dating site like Zoosk, you are often required to input your email. Most time, these sites also require that you confirm your email for more security.
Here’s my point, you might’ve signed up for this website some time ago and probably lost interest in the ‘internet love’ phenomenon.
Maybe you finally settled down with your wife and even had kids leaving everything behind and pushing it to the back of your mind.
Then years later you stumble on an email from Zoosk and go ‘how the heck did they get my email? I thought my negligence would’ve canceled the account. But I wasn’t even active?
The good news is that all your assertions are valid and you are not losing it. And the bad news is that your email never disappeared from the site’s database and is still active even if you went awol for a decade.
Hence, your email was gotten because you might’ve signed up years back. So before you go on to get real curious, seat down and do a proper self-examination.
Zoosk Got Your Email via a Referral
Zoosk has a policy of collecting the data of individuals who have been referred to the site by either their friends or a family member, or even a relationship counselor.
When all this information is collected, they notify these people of the recommendations mostly through their emails.
Most of these people receive the emails and wonder how their details ended up on a dating site.
If you find yourself in the same circumstance, there is a good chance that one of your friends might’ve tried to hook you up on a dating site.
Also, if your love life sucks, that can indicate a possible motive why someone close to you referred you to Zoosk.
To confirm this, go through your friend list on either social media or contacts and try to identify those that could be subscribers on Zoosk.
There is a huge chance that you will find one or two of them. Try to ask them about this and get clarified.
They Might’ve Gotten It through a Scammer
Zoosk has a bad reputation engineered by the heavy presence of fake accounts and scammers on the website.
The issue of scams has been repeatedly brought up as complaints by most of their subscribers, which indicates that the site is vulnerable to hack attacks.
Scammers work with details that they get from mostly phishing and other sources like social media or freelance sites. If you are a scam target, they can use your email on dating sites like Zoosk to lure you in.
The dating site stores your detail and sends you notifications about the purported activities going on with your email address.
This is a common way through which scammers decoy their intending victims by using emails of real people but for fake reasons.
They Got It from an Affiliate Website
This is another possible way in which your email can get into the hands of a Zoosk. A lot of online websites have affiliate relationships with other sites in the same niche or similar nice.
Part of their affiliate agreements could include sharing of subscribers’ details and contacts. If you happen to have signed up on the other side, then Zoosk indirectly has its hands on your email.
Although you might be pissed off by this, it has no illegal implications as they obtained your email through a partnership.
They Might’ve Gotten It through a Mailing List
Your email can get to Zoosk through a mailing list purchased by the dating site. As a part of marketing or awareness strategies, most service-offering websites buy mailing lists containing a long list of emails belonging to random persons.
Using these emails, they send out a discount or any other special offers on their paid services.
Peradventure, if your email address ends up on any of the mailing lists, then there’s a possibility that you can see messages from Zoosk in your inbox.
They Might’ve Gotten It from Social Media
Your email can get to Zoosk through social media pop-up ads. The site uses these pop-ups to generate an audience and can also get your details from the same source.
For instance, Zoosk is affiliated with Facebook and there have been complaints about how accounts are created and emails sent to people without their consent.
Although the dating site has come out to debunk this news, their terms of use agreement state otherwise and further prove that the dating site can pick details randomly from people on social media platforms like Facebook.
The details collected can also include your email address, leading to the message sent to your inbox.
How Do I Stop Emails From Zoosk?
If seeing messages from a dating site like Zoosk leads to full-on tension, in fear of being seen by your spouse or children, then putting an end to these messages is the best remedy.
There are a couple of things that you can do to stop getting emails from Zoosk, but you need to be proactive in all you do to ensure a lasting solution. Here are some actionable steps to take:
- Opt for changing password and account deletion
- Contact Zoosk’s customer care to breach the mail
- Configure your email settings for spam messages
- Minimize signups on unverified sites
- Unsubscribe your email from their mailing list
Opt For Changing Password and Account Deletion
This is usually the first course of action taken by many people immediately after they noticed unusual messages from dating sites like Zoosk.
Some of these messages come with a profile link that loads up to the profile log-in of the account created with your email address.
To stop the emails from flooding your inbox, you have to head on to the log-in page and try to change the password used in opening the account.
If you’re able to get this done, then the next thing to do will be to delete or deactivate the account.
Oftentimes, this process proves futile, but a trial won’t hurt. So try out this tip. Hopefully, it will work.
But if it doesn’t, then the next tip becomes your second step.
Contact Zoosk’s Customer Care to Breach the Mails
This should be your next line of action if the initial step of changing the password and deleting the account doesn’t work out.
There have been a lot of complaints from embittered users about how hard it is for them to delete their accounts on Zoosk.
Nonetheless, once you try the first step and it fails, hitting up the customer care service won’t sound like a bad idea.
Zoosk also has a bad reputation for seemingly inefficient customer care service, which will agree to perform a request without swinging into action immediately.
But I’ve learned from a friend who had a similar experience that consistent calls and texts with a bit of patience can get your request done.
This friend of mine had to wait for over 2 months before they disabled her account on Zoosk, signaling the end of the mails.
Configure Your Email Settings for Spam Messages
If patience and continual message bugging are not your things, then you can just do things the easy way. At most, I don’t know anybody who would prefer stress to easy-peasy tasks.
This easy way requires a bit of technicality to get it done. Most of the process is creating a separate folder on your email settings for a spam message.
You can do this if you didn’t have anyone at first, or you want to have an entirely different spam inbox for Zoosk’s messages.
For those using Gmail, doing this is simple as you have to go to settings by clicking the icon that looks like a gear. Find your way through to the ‘Filters and Blocked Addresses’; then click on ‘Create New File’.
Go on to click on the ‘From’ category and input the email through which Zoosk’s messages come into your inbox. You can also look up the methods unique to other mail service providers like Yahoo Mail or email clients like Apple Mail.
Minimize Signups on Unverified Sites
This tip is more of a precaution as it aims at alerting you on what and what not to do during surfing the internet.
Several phishing websites are disguising as legit sites, which request the detail of unaware persons.
If you make your details like your email, zip codes, or age without verifying their legitimacy; then there’s a possibility that you just gave out your details to a phisher without knowing.
These phishers, in turn, compile these profiles and contact details and sell them to websites in the form of a mailing list. The bigger risk is that they equally sell to hackers and scammers, making your details open.
To stay on the safer side, you have to ensure that you do a proper check before signing up for any site or opportunities out there.
Unsubscribe Your Email from Their Mailing List
While the previous tip talked about being cautious about how you disperse or sign up on websites without proper check, this tip allows you to get rid of your email on any mailing list to which you would have subscribed unknowingly.
You can do this by using trusted sites that can get you off the hook. To save you the stress of looking for one, I’d recommend the DoNotPay site, which works in a 3-way format.
First, it detects if your email is on any mailing list, unsubscribes you, and also checks if there’s a class action suit against the sender.
To use their service, visit their web browser www.donotpay.com, and select Spam collector.
Enter your email address and link it to DoNotPay; then wait for the next spam email. Once you get the message from Zoosk, forward it as a mail to spam@donotpay.com.
The site will take your email off of the mailing list used by Zoosk to send in those messages, putting an end to the emails from Zoosk.
Conclusion
The Zoosk dating app is notorious for its creation of accounts using emails belonging to a lot of persons without their consent.
This post has succeeded in enlightening you on the possible ways by which your email can get to Zoosk.
It also provides you with tangible reasons why you keep getting messages from Zoosk, even if you didn’t subscribe to them.
It also provided you with tips on how to stop the emails coming from Zoosk.
I believe you’re now equipped with relevant information to go about this type of problem and also extend helping hands to your friends, family members, or even work colleagues if they ever find themselves in such a situation.
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