is it legal to buy email lists?

[Ron Hartman]

Jurisdiction

Georgia

I want to advertise my product to lawyers across Houston area.
Is it legal to buy bulk email lists and send a mass promotional email marketing campaign?
Seller says the emails are opt in so I guess it should be fine.

 

[justblue]

I want to advertise my product to lawyers across Houston area.
Is it legal to buy bulk email lists and send a mass promotional email marketing campaign?
Seller says the emails are opt in so I guess it should be fine.

You're e-mail ad will never be looked at. Most people are smart enough to send unsolicited ad's to where they belong...the "trash".

You idea is a really great way to turn off/piss off potential clients.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I want to advertise my product to lawyers across Houston area. Is it legal to buy bulk email lists and send a mass promotional email marketing campaign? Seller says the emails are opt in so I guess it should be fine.

This is no different than purchasing something where a vendor insists "we do everything by the book and to the letter of the law." Problems arise when you find out that they may not be telling you the whole truth. At that point your legal remedies are only as good as your indemnification clause and the liquid assets of the vendor. And as to your reputation from attorneys and firms who may not have opted in to the list... that's a relationship which may not be repairable. Caveat Emptor. I won't go into the CAN SPAM Act.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Yes, it is legal as long as you follow the laws regarding them.

But Opt-In lists are not people that opted in for every random email. They opted-in for a specific sender and now the sender is selling the list.

blue is right it is just going to piss people off and they may well remember you negatively when and if you try a better marketing approach.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

As an FYI, I have had my email address for 27 years. Back in the 90s data harvesting wasn't as fierce as it is today. I can't begin to tell you how many legal organizations claim I opted into their lists and it incenses me any time someone insists I must have opted in because I know I didn't. I use another email address for that but someone added my email address from an address book or from the credits of open source software ( Postnuke content management system) where my name and email address appears in the credits.