Collecting email addresses without permission

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by olti, Mar 10, 2009.

  1. #1
    Is it legal or illegal collecting email addresses from different sources, without asking the owners and using them for email marketing?

    Is there any low about this issue?!

    Regards.
     
    olti, Mar 10, 2009 IP
  2. mjewel

    mjewel Prominent Member

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    #2
    Yes, it is illegal - a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.
     
    mjewel, Mar 10, 2009 IP
  3. olti

    olti Well-Known Member

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    #3
    Can you show me a link about this?!
     
    olti, Mar 10, 2009 IP
  4. tobycoke

    tobycoke Well-Known Member

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    #4
    tobycoke, Mar 10, 2009 IP
  5. olti

    olti Well-Known Member

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    #5
    I don't see anything against "collecting emails without permission"!!
     
    olti, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  6. FreedomOverdose

    FreedomOverdose Well-Known Member

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    #6
    you can collect but you cannot send them unsolicited emails, so why do you want them for? :)
     
    FreedomOverdose, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  7. dynashox

    dynashox Premium Member Staff

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    #7
    This is more like a common sense to me. Sending a marketing email to the email owners without their permission is considered as spam because it is against their privacy.

    Just put yourself as the test subject and then other people start collecting your email and start sending promotion emails day after day to your inbox until you get sick of it. Do you find with it?

    - Dynashox -
     
    dynashox, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  8. enkass132

    enkass132 Active Member

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    #8
    of course it is illegal!
     
    enkass132, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  9. arunn

    arunn Active Member

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    #9
    yea its illegal to send spam..

    r u talking abt private email collectors ( a breed of stamp collectors ) who wanna file them all in a folder and display in their portfolio:)
     
    arunn, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  10. UncleBS

    UncleBS Guest

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    #10
    Collecting them is not illegal.. Using them and selling them can be..

    Why do you want them anyway?? My guess is to email people, or sell the list.. Both of which can lead you to trouble..
     
    UncleBS, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  11. mjewel

    mjewel Prominent Member

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    #11
    What part isn't clear?

    "A message cannot be sent to a harvested email address"
     
    mjewel, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  12. tobycoke

    tobycoke Well-Known Member

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    #12
    It's the second part of your question that will get you into trouble "....and using them for email marketing?"
     
    tobycoke, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  13. Viktor Drej

    Viktor Drej Banned

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    #13
    You have no right to keep my private email address without my permission!

    Do definitely there is something wrong...
     
    Viktor Drej, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  14. Kampung

    Kampung Active Member

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    #14
    I'll feel very annoyed receiving marketing emails from some unknown sender. Especially, if it is sent to my workplace email. Logically, It is unethical.
     
    Kampung, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  15. crestind

    crestind Peon

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    #15
    Why the hell would you need emails if you weren't going to send out crap like Viagra and cheap pharmaceuticals? If you really want to make money, go buy yourself a Google Money Tree trial...
     
    crestind, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  16. hmansfield

    hmansfield Guest

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    #16
    The entire thing is about collecting emails and spamming people without permission, how can you not see that ?
     
    hmansfield, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  17. Reprobate

    Reprobate Guest

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    #17
    Okay, it may not be illegal to collect email addresses without permission (go for it!) but using them to send unsolicited bulk email, that is against the law.
     
    Reprobate, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  18. helaughs

    helaughs Peon

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    #18
    So if it is against the law you can quote the law right??? The way I read CAN SPAM sending to harvested emails is an aggravating factor in determining punishment but in and of itself is not illegal.

    From the FTC http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

    "Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.

    Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules described above, but also:

    "harvest" email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email"

    What that says to me is harvesting and sending to harvested emails is not illegal by itself, although I do think it is a poor business practice. You will get blacklisted quickly and piss off your hosting company if you send out any real volume of bulk scraped email addresses. Remember your hosting company is going to have to clean up your mess after you leave as well.

    I have had enough problems sending email to opt in coreg data, I can't imagine the problems associated with sending to scraped emails which will contain a large number of honeypots. Only way to send volume to scraped emails is using a botnet which is illegal in almost everywhere.



    I am not a lawyer and you should seek competent legal advise before going through with sending email to scrape email addresses.
     
    helaughs, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  19. hmansfield

    hmansfield Guest

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    #19
    It is so clear, it's laughable that you still are trying to find the loop hole.
    The 2 together is the crime..."aggravating factor in determining punishment ", means the gravity of your actions...how many people you just blatantly spam, will determine how long you spend in jail.:eek:

    For instance, you may only get a few months (and a felony of course) if you only spam 100 people, but if you spam 5,000 people you may get 2 years...or the judge may just decide to give you one day, for every piece of email that you sent out.."aggravating factor in determining punishment "

    But you keep looking for that loop hole, I am sure that you are smarter than the legal experts, Congressman and Senators (all who mostly have law degrees) that actually penned the law to protect people.

    With the low conversion rate of email marketing, the lowest in the industry, why are you trying so hard ?

    Just build an opt in list like everyone else, you can't sell to people that you spam anyway.
     
    hmansfield, Mar 11, 2009 IP
  20. usadesi

    usadesi Peon

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    #20
    It is not a illegal thing.In some times U may have benefit also.
     
    usadesi, Mar 12, 2009 IP