Doesn't Facebook require users to verify the email address with a confirmation email? If so, the only Facebook spam you should be able to get would be such confirmation emails. Or what am I missing?
I can't speak about facebook but I am in the case of having a gmail address[1] with my first name initial followed by my last name and I am in the case of having people with same last name and first name initial using my email address to register. That box is polluted by regular confirmation emails followed by spams from the same many websites. It turns out that more often than not the confirmation email is made to protect the companies running the websites (I guess to limit bots and password that can't be reinitialized), not promotionnal mail registration. You still receive all the promotionnal and automated email regardless if the user is active. Different table in the database I guess. Also there websites/services that don't use confirmation emails as well as processes initiated through physical office/point of sale.
[1] now pretty much abandonned but I mostly keep it to avoid anyone obtaining it and impersonating me. I still need to do some housekeeping and make sure I am not registered anywhere with that address anymore.
In my experience, surprisingly few services nowadays require email confirmation, I suppose in the name of increasing conversions or something.
I've had a number of accounts opened in my address but with different dots (eBay, Spotify, Shutterstock) that didn't require confirmation.
I usually reset the password, inform customer service (who generally don't care, or don't want to do anything because it's not my account), and then I close the account.
Oh I wish that were true, I've been receiving email for years for someone who signed up to facebook with my email address. It's a horrible pain, you can't contact facebook without a facebook account, and I can't create one because someone already has one with my email address.
Do a password recovery, log in and simply delete the account.
I had to do this once when someone signed up to FB with my email address. It actually was an eye opening experience as to how much data FB collects from everyone.
Now keep in mind that:
1) I don't have a FB account myself
2) This person signed up with my email address (which is <something-generic>@gmail.com), but their name is completely different from mine
3) They didn't even speak the same language, when I logged in to the new account the whole thing was in Swedish or something like it.
So nothing at all linking the account to me, except a misspelled e-mail address. When I logged in, FB was happy to suggest I friend a whole bunch of people I know IRL. Including people that do not know the e-mail address used. Absolutely crazy. How were they able to link me to these people when I was signed in to a complete stranger's account?
Well I sort of did, didn't want to delete the guy's stuff, so I made a dummy gmail account, switched it to that and deleted the gmail account after weeks of spam emails and trying to contact facebook I figured he could do some of the hard work to get his account back.
Of course it backfired, after he stopped using his account facebook and a couple of weeks facebook started sending begging emails to my email account again (don't believe them when they say they delete anything), I still get the occasional "what you've missed on FB" emails and about once a year the guy tries to recover his account and I get an email, I'd drop him a note, but the only email address I have for him is mine
