carlsson

People sending out emails faking to be from a company you might be a customer to or mailing list you might be subscribed to. The majority indeed use an opt-out clause, but a fair number instead use an opt-in clause, requiring you to click on a given link to remain with them.

If people unknowingly click on links in what seems to be a lawful email, anything could happen. Normally people are suspicious about such links, but right now your mailbox is flooded with genuine links to click.

I guess so.

Other knock-on effects: people quitting services they forget they signed onto (nothing wrong with that, unless the service is counting on them)

I get so much spam on my work account (technically it's "unsolicited commercial communication" so we cannot block it) that I simply whack nearly everything from unknown external senders. So I guess I'm habituated to protect against this.

Phishing is bad, though.