Is it legal to send mass email to all my contacts that I got over time on craigslist.

If I have got a few thousand emails from people that I have dealt with on craigslist, amazon, ebay and other sources and I wanted to make a e-mailing list to send them opt in links for biz op is that legal since they didnt opt in yet. They have all emailed me at some point in time so I didn't use a crawler or anything....................... Is this legal I might want to sell the lists as well

 

If you are going to email them, make sure you use a proxy....of if you have an email program just make sure to let them know that at some point they gave you their email during a business transaction or whatever..and give them a chance to opt out if they choose to. I would put that disclaimer like this:

You are receiving this email because ....

Just look in some of the emails you have received and you will see what I am talking about.

 

that sounds like it might work

 

In the US, you do not need an opt-in as long as you are dealing with non-sexually explicit content. If you have their email, you can email them with commercial offers without their prior consent. Make sure you follow the rules as each separate email sent can cost you up to $16k in penalties if you do not comply with commercial mailing requirements.

If you are from somewhere else, you will need to look at the rules laid out by your nation.

 

So what exactly what would I have to put in the ad?...... A clear opt out link or directions of how to reply back to opt out, a link to my webpage with a making money online strategy mumbo jumbo that they can buy for $20, a business address with a phone number and the word **ADVERTISEMENT** stated clearly.....Right? Then I can sell the leads once they buy correct?

 

If you are from the US, you want the following in your email:

• Clear Subject, doesn't have to say "Advertisement" in the title, just don't be deceptive (don't pretend to be another company or label with something like "Support" in hopes of tricking someone into opening it)
• Somewhere in the email, have a disclaimer about your relationship with whatever you are advertising (affiliate, direct sale of your product, etc)
• Clear explanation of how to opt-out of receiving emails from you (10 business days to honor an opt-out request)
• Contact information including mailing address
• For any links, never put content in the email meant to deceive about what a link is
• Finally, whatever the other content of your email is

 

Thanks so I have an E-book that I am going to be selling for $20 that is going to go over a strategy of making money online...... The title is going to say something like "Why Wait? People are making money right now from home!!!!!!!!" and in the ad I am going to have directions on how to email a opt-out email account, my business address and phone number and a link to my site with a very enticing script and then it will have a page to enter your card information, name, address, email, and phone number. Then I will email the file with the e-book....... Then I can sell the info to a ecommerce business coaching company correct? What kind of business license do I need to get in order to do this? I am located in seattle washington

 

It also depends on how you collected these email addresses as well. Saying you "dealt" with them is pretty vague. You might want to consult with an attorney before hand as can-spam laws can get crazy.

 

The Can Spam Act references two ways that you cannot obtain an email address for the purposes of commercial mailings.

It isn't something you need to consult an attorney for. The Can Spam Act was written with business people in mind as the readers.

The OP specified "They have all emailed me at some point in time so I didn't use a crawler or anything". He is well within the law to send them a commercial mailing and an attorney isn't needed to determine that.

 

When you say you will "sell the info", do you mean the information you collect? If so, you would be breaking the law in the US.

Website operators may not distribute their legitimately collected lists. When you collect email addresses through your website, you may not give, sell, or otherwise transfer the email addresses to any other party for the purposes of initiating, or enabling others to initiate, electronic mail messages. You may mail the people who submit their information to your website, on behalf of the company, but may not provide that company with the information submitted to your website. That company needs to collect the information themselves, through their own website, submitted by the individuals.

EDIT: As far as business license, I am not sure what your city may or may not require. In most cases, within the US, as long as you are not operating a storefront or running a business that requires special licensing, you don't need to have a business license. You can just operated as a sole-proprietor, self-employed and accepting payments only in your own name. Check with your city though. They should have some info on the city website, or maybe a local chamber of commerce website.

 

you guys are the best thanks for everything

 

When I say sell there information I just mean there email address, name and phone number and the fact that they had purchased my biz op program..... I am just selling them as leads essentially

 

If they submit their information to your website, you may not sell it to another company who would use it to intiate, or enable others to initiate, electronic mail messages.

 

so i cant sell there email and phone numbers to a biz op coaching company like focus learning center or thrive coaching.......... could i have a box that they could check to opt in to recieve other offers........... the company I would sell them to only requires a first name and a phone number on the lead..... essentially i have this info from them already and I would only sell the numbers and names of people who purchase my e-book.

 

If the company only requires a first name and phone number, then email law is a non-issue. As far as an opt-in to receive other offers, you can go that route (the nicer route), or you can create a Terms of Use (or End User License Agreement) which you require agreement to, that includes information stating that the customer is giving you permission to give away, sell, or transfer their customer information (name and phone number in your case) to a third party.

The reason I say that the opt-in is nicer is because it a more straight-forward. Throwing the agreement into a Terms of Use means that the majority won't take the time to read through and find the part about their information being "up for grabs". We live in a society where accepting Terms of Use without reading is the norm.

 

However personal mailing is OK. But, while coming to the marketing related emails we must have a opt-in list otherwise it will be considered as spam. So, i recommend you to ask them to get opt-in. Use subscription forms to get opt-in list. And while coming to myself, I do use Comm100 Email Marketing tool. It has a great free features, where you can get a subscription form free and manage the bulk opt-in contacts (it may be in thousands of lakhs).

 

Under EU law, an opt-in is required. As far as the laws of India, I have no idea. For the OP, based in the US, the Can Spam Act does not require an opt-in to email someone. There are just some rules you need to follow when emailing someone with a commercial offer, and in how you obtain the emails. You would personally need to follow whatever rules India has in place for commercial mailings, while someone from the EU would need to follow EU laws, and the OP being from the US needs to follow US laws.

Regardless of laws, opt-in (preferably double) is usually a good idea for anyone concerned with maintaining a good image. Large companies, like Walmart for example, would likely never email someone without at least a single opt-in as many potential customers could gain a negative view of the company.

 

so if they opt in i can sell there phone number name and email address correct

 

For a phone number and name, and other personal information they provide (that doesn't have a specific law saying otherwise), you can if they opt-in to have it sold or agree to your Terms of Use that specifies any information they voluntarily submit to your site may be sold, given away, or transferred.

You can't make a Terms of Use or other contract that allows you to sell email addresses collected through your website. The current US law prohibits selling, giving away, and transferring email addresses collected through your website. It is a law and a civil contract cannot be made to get around it.

Some outside the US, based on their local laws (or lack of), can sell email addresses, but even you as someone from the US cannot legally buy them if they were collected through a website. The law is written to prevent anyone running a website from the US to sell emails they collect from visitors to someone else, and to prevent someone from the US from buying emails collected through a website. Since some countries don't stop their citizens from selling emails, the US made the law to specify that it is illegal for you to buy the emails collected through a website, even if that website was able to legally sell the emails under the laws of their country.

As you can see there, it not only prohibits you from selling, giving, or transferring emails collected through a site or online service, but it requires you to have a statement on the site informing visitors that you "will not give, sell, or otherwise transfer addresses maintained by such website or online service to any other party for the purposes of initiating, or enabling others to initiate, electronic mail messages". You have to go out of your way to make sure that is included in a US-based website that accepts email addresses from its users/visitors.

Now there are two things here, one that does apply to your situation, and one that may apply to your situation.

The first that does apply is that you can send a commercial mailing on behalf of someone else. While you cannot let them have the email addresses, you can send emails for them. You could send something like "Hey, check out this company. They do online business coaching and can help you get serious and organized when it comes to making money online!" Now that is just an example, and you would need to follow commercial mailing rules, but you could send an email promoting them to your list, with a link to a page that the company sets up where they can collect emails. The big thing here is that the people from your list have to submit their email addresses to that company themselves, you cannot cut that step out by directly providing their email addresses to the company.

The other, which may apply to your situation, is to find out from that company what they use the email addresses for. The law only prevents you from handing over email addresses to someone who will use them "for the purposes of initiating, or enabling others to initiate, electronic mail messages". What you want to ask the company you are looking to sell the information to is what specifically they use the email addresses for. Since they only require first name and phone number, they may in fact not have any intention of using the email addresses to initiate an electronic mail message (send an email). What they could be doing is calling the leads up, giving them a sales pitch, and ask the person if they can send them information via email. They can then say "We have this email address on file for you, . Can you confirm that email address is correct and that we can send you an email with some more information?"

That is just an example of how they might treat it but, however they use email addresses that you would submit, your main concern is that they will not send emails using those email addresses, without getting consent from the person they are emailing first. Check with the company and see how they plan to use it. If they seem to not want to tell you, let them know that you are following the Can Spam Act as a US resident and just need them to confirm that they will not be using the email addresses in a way that violates the Can Spam Act. If they are a US company, they should be following the Can Spam Act already, but still ask to make sure, preferably getting something in writing sent via certified mail, stating that they will not be violating the Can Spam Act. You can be held liable so do what you can to cover yourself if they lie to you or decide to start doing things the wrong way later.

If they are following the Can Spam Act, not using the email addresses to send emails before getting consent from the customers, just make sure you specify in your Terms of Use or opt-in that any email address they submit may be sold, given, or transferred, but only in situations where it is compliant with the Can Spam Act.

 

The company I would be selling them to would be doing exactly that. They would be calling and promoting a sales pitch and not emailing them so if they buy my program and agree to my terms and conditions then I can only sell the phone number and name correct. I am only going to sell the info of the people who opted in and bought my ebook program