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What are the dangers of scraping emails and ignoring CAN-SPAM?

8 Marketer opinions3 Expert opinions4 Technical articles4 Resources

Summary

Scraping emails and ignoring CAN-SPAM and related legislation presents significant dangers spanning legal, technical, ethical, and reputational domains. Legally, organizations face fines and legal action for non-compliance with CAN-SPAM, CASL, and GDPR. Technically, sender reputation suffers due to spam traps and low-quality addresses in scraped lists, leading to blacklisting and reduced deliverability across email providers like Gmail. Ethically, it involves sending emails without consent, perceived as spammy and disrespectful, hurting brand reputation. Experts recommend opting for consent-based lead generation methods like lead magnets and signup forms to build a healthy subscriber base and maintain compliance with global privacy regulations.

Key findings

  • Legal Penalties: Non-compliance with CAN-SPAM, CASL, and GDPR can result in significant fines and legal action.
  • Reputation Damage: Scraped lists often contain spam traps and invalid addresses, damaging sender reputation and leading to blacklisting.
  • Deliverability Issues: Sending to scraped lists reduces email deliverability, with emails being filtered to spam or blocked entirely by providers like Gmail.
  • Ethical Concerns: Scraping emails is considered unethical due to the lack of consent and intrusive nature of unsolicited communications.
  • Brand Erosion: Association with spam erodes brand trust and damages long-term customer relationships.

Key considerations

  • Legal Compliance: Ensure strict adherence to CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR, and other relevant email marketing regulations.
  • Ethical Marketing Practices: Prioritize obtaining explicit consent from recipients before sending any emails.
  • Reputation Management: Implement robust sender reputation monitoring and management practices.
  • List Hygiene: Avoid scraping emails and maintain a clean, permission-based email list.
  • Alternative Lead Generation: Invest in consent-based lead generation methods such as lead magnets, signup forms, and content marketing.

What email marketers say
8Marketer opinions

Scraping emails and ignoring CAN-SPAM poses significant dangers. These range from legal consequences like hefty fines, to technical issues such as damaged sender reputation, blacklisting, and poor deliverability. Ethical concerns also arise as it involves sending emails to people who haven't opted in, which is viewed as spammy and disrespectful. CAN-SPAM requires clear unsubscribe options, and neglecting this leads to non-compliance. Furthermore, this practice hurts brand reputation, associating the company with spam. Experts advise exploring alternatives such as lead magnets and signup forms, emphasizing the importance of consent to maintain credibility and build relationships with future leads.

Key opinions

  • Legal Ramifications: Ignoring CAN-SPAM can result in substantial fines and legal action.
  • Reputation Damage: Sending unsolicited emails to scraped lists harms sender reputation, leading to blacklisting and poor deliverability.
  • Ethical Concerns: Scraping emails raises ethical issues as it involves sending emails without consent, often seen as spam.
  • Brand Impact: Association with spam damages brand reputation and erodes customer trust.
  • Alternative Solutions: Lead magnets and signup forms provide viable alternatives to scraping, fostering genuine engagement.

Key considerations

  • CAN-SPAM Compliance: Ensure all email campaigns comply with CAN-SPAM, including providing clear unsubscribe options.
  • Consent: Prioritize obtaining explicit consent from recipients before sending any emails.
  • Sender Reputation: Actively monitor and protect sender reputation to maintain optimal deliverability.
  • Ethical Marketing: Adhere to ethical marketing practices by respecting user privacy and avoiding unsolicited communications.
  • Alternative Lead Generation: Invest in alternative lead generation methods like lead magnets and signup forms to build engaged audience.
Marketer view

Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog explains that scraping emails and ignoring CAN-SPAM can lead to significant legal consequences, including hefty fines per violation.

October 2023 - Neil Patel Blog
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks shares an agency guy on LinkedIn who claimed CAN-SPAM is about opting out, not in, and encouraged sending to everyone, prompting a DM.

May 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from G2 explains that scraping is not only dangerous but there are much better alternatives such as lead magnets or signup forms.

March 2021 - G2.com
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that scraping emails and ignoring CAN-SPAM hurts your brand. People will associate your company with spam, eroding trust and damaging your reputation.

July 2022 - Email Marketing Forum
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit explains that beyond legal and technical issues, scraping emails raises ethical concerns. Sending emails to people who haven't opted in is generally viewed as spammy and disrespectful.

August 2023 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from Mailjet Blog shares that the CAN-SPAM Act requires a clear and conspicuous way for recipients to unsubscribe from future emails. Ignoring this aspect of CAN-SPAM leads to non-compliance and potential penalties.

May 2021 - Mailjet Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email on Acid Blog explains that scraping emails damages sender reputation. Sending unsolicited emails to scraped lists can result in high bounce rates, spam complaints, and blacklisting, severely impacting email deliverability.

March 2025 - Email on Acid Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Optinmonster explains how sending to a list without consent hurts your credibility and relationship with future leads.

July 2021 - Optinmonster.com

What the experts say
3Expert opinions

Experts warn against scraping emails and ignoring CAN-SPAM due to severe risks. An example highlights how scraping emails can lead to immediate blacklisting. Scraped lists often contain spam traps, damaging sender reputation and reducing deliverability even to legitimate subscribers. Furthermore, disregarding CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and similar privacy laws can result in hefty fines and legal battles due to the failure to obtain explicit consent and honor unsubscribe requests promptly.

Key opinions

  • Blacklisting: Scraping emails can lead to immediate blacklisting of the domain.
  • Spam Traps: Scraped lists often contain spam traps, harming sender reputation.
  • Legal Risks: Ignoring CAN-SPAM and GDPR results in fines and legal battles.

Key considerations

  • Avoid Scraping: Refrain from scraping emails due to associated risks.
  • Reputation Management: Implement practices to protect sender reputation from spam traps.
  • Legal Compliance: Adhere to CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and other relevant privacy laws.
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource shares that scraped lists are going to contain spam traps and other problem addresses that are going to damage your reputation. This will eventually lead to low delivery rates to legitimate subscribers.

December 2024 - Spam Resource
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that CAN-SPAM requires senders to honour unsubscribe requests promptly, but GDPR and other global privacy laws require explicit consent. Ignoring these laws when sending to scraped emails can lead to severe penalties and legal battles.

February 2023 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks shares an example of a 'growth hacker' who scraped emails from LinkedIn and ran a campaign, resulting in their domain being blacklisted.

April 2023 - Email Geeks

What the documentation says
4Technical articles

Official documentation highlights significant dangers associated with scraping emails and ignoring anti-spam laws. The FTC states that violating CAN-SPAM requirements, such as using deceptive subject lines or failing to honor opt-out requests, results in legal action. Spamhaus indicates that sending to scraped addresses frequently leads to blacklisting, severely impacting email deliverability. Google emphasizes that sending unsolicited emails violates Gmail's strict sender guidelines, causing emails to be filtered to spam or blocked. The Canadian Government also highlights penalties relating to CASL and failing to adhere to gaining consent.

Key findings

  • Legal Consequences: Violating CAN-SPAM results in legal action by the FTC.
  • Blacklisting Risk: Sending to scraped addresses leads to blacklisting by organizations like Spamhaus.
  • Gmail Filtering: Unsolicited emails violate Gmail's guidelines, resulting in spam filtering or blocking.
  • CASL Non-Compliance: Failure to adhere to CASL laws, such as gaining consent, leads to severe penalties

Key considerations

  • Adhere to CAN-SPAM: Comply with all CAN-SPAM requirements, including truthful subject lines and honoring opt-out requests.
  • Avoid Scraped Lists: Refrain from sending emails to scraped addresses to prevent blacklisting.
  • Follow Sender Guidelines: Adhere to Gmail's and other email providers' sender guidelines to ensure deliverability.
  • Obtain Consent: Explicitly obtain consent before sending emails, particularly considering CASL regulations.
Technical article

Documentation from Google explains that Gmail has strict sender guidelines. Sending unsolicited emails, especially to scraped lists, violates these guidelines, leading to emails being filtered to spam folders or blocked entirely.

May 2022 - Google Support
Technical article

Documentation from Spamhaus explains that sending emails to scraped addresses often results in blacklisting. Spamhaus is a major anti-spam organization, and being listed on their blocklists can severely impact email deliverability.

August 2022 - Spamhaus
Technical article

Documentation from the Canadian Government shares that the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) requires consent and failure to adhere leads to serious penalties

November 2023 - fightspam.gc.ca
Technical article

Documentation from FTC explains that CAN-SPAM Act establishes requirements for commercial email, including not using deceptive subject lines, providing a physical postal address, and honoring opt-out requests promptly. Ignoring these rules can result in legal action.

July 2022 - FTC.gov

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4Resources

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