Stop Twitter's "follow-me" spam in its tracks

This article is about how to stop the annoying email messages that Twitter sends when an acquaintance joins Twitter and decides that they think you should follow them there too.

What happens if a "friend" invites to you follow them on Twitter

A few weeks ago, I got an email message saying that Helen Someone had just signed up to Twitter, and had provided my email address as someone who followed her elsewhere, and who she thought should follow her here too.


But I'm already on Twitter, and my account there is linked to a different email address than the one which Ms Someone "generously" chose to share with Twitter. And frankly, I get enough email from her already, the last thing I want her doing is bugging me on Twitter too.

So what did I do? Like any sensible person, I deleted the email.

But now, every few days, I get an email message like this :

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Helen Someone is still waiting for you to join Twitter...
From: "Twitter"
Date: Fri, March 29, 2013 4:26 am
To: me@email.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Helen Someone is still waiting for you to join Twitter...

Twitter helps you stay connected with what's happening right now and with the people and organizations you care about.

Accept invitation     https://twitter.com/i/535c9c20b....5487e4f01449c029

------------------------

This message was sent by Twitter on behalf of Twitter users who entered your email address to invite you to Twitter.
Unsubscribe: https://twitter.com/i/o?t=1&iid=05f4a3...d=68+26+20130328

Need help?
https://support.twitter.com

Or like this, if I look at it an email client that shows the graphics - notice that the "how to un-subscribe" message is in very small print, down the bottom of the page.

How to stop these messages

At first I just ignored these messages: I figured that Twitter would give up and leave me alone after one or two reminders. But that hasn't happened: they keep reminding me, and I'm getting sick of deleting the same message over and over again.

So today I went looking for how to stop the reminders from happening.   Basically there are two options:

Option 1:  Sign up to Twitter

Accept the invitation, sign up for a new twitter account, turn off all email notifications for this account - and never uses the account again.

Advantage: this stops the annoying messages - and makes sure you won't get them from any other "friends" who give Twitter the same address.

Disadvantage: other friends (who maybe you do want to follow in Twitter) may enter the same email address, and Twitter may connect them to this same Twitter-account that you never use.   You won't get a notification.

Option 2:  Use the un-subscribe link that's provided

If you look at the email contents, there is actually an unsubscribe link near the bottom of the message - f your email client shows the graphic version of the message it's right down in the ultra-small print at the bottom.

Click the link provided - or copy-and-paste it to a web-browser.

This will turn off the annoying messages from this person - and it will also stop your email address from getting messages if other people join Twitter and suggest you should follow them there.

Is this Ok

Which option would you recommend?

More importantly - do you think it's ok to share other people's addresses with social networking sites that you sign up to, in the way that Ms Someone gave my address to Twitter?