I’m starting to see a very disturbing internet/web practice that is getting out of control. Yes, I’m talking about those email newsletters from companies all over the web that seem to have picked my name out-of-a-hat and signed me up without my consent.

It’s driving me crazy. I already have Gmail and UT Dallas email accounts to keep up with and that alone is almost a full-time job.

I have noticed that I have mysteriously been signed up for email newsletter accounts right and left for obscure companies and big corporations and I have been spending way too much time weekly clicking on the unsubscribe link to get out of them.

So during the last two weeks, when my wife Ruthie was on a road trip with her parents to Florida, I helped them out by scouring the internet looking for good deals on hotels for cities they were almost in so they would not have to mess with it on the road. That worked out pretty good except for one time where I made it for the wrong city.

With most of the reservations I made, I asked them to email a confirmation to Ruthie so she would have the info on her iPhone at checkin. In a few cases I gave them my Gmail email for the confirmation.

Well, at one La Quinta I gave them my Gmail, but I did not get a confirmation email. I wound up calling the guy back twice more to find out why it did not come, each time I spelled out carefully the email address and he confirmed it. Nope, never did get a confirmation email from him.

It was frustrating and I finally gave up, content just scribbling down the number.

I think you see what’s coming…A few days ago I got this lovely email newsletter from La Quinta. One that I never signed up for. Odd how they have the right email for the newletter, but could not get me an email confirmation of my reservation.

I’d be curious to hear if anyone else is experiencing these phantom newsletter signups besides me? Please comment if you have any experience with this.