What are the potential risks of sending emails to addresses scraped from public websites?

Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog shares that sending emails to scraped addresses can trigger spam filters, as these recipients have not explicitly opted in to receive communications. This lack of consent can lead to high spam complaint rates, which can damage your sender reputation and result in your emails being filtered as spam by email providers.

Email marketer from Litmus Blog warns that scraping email addresses and sending unsolicited emails can damage your sender reputation, which is a key factor in email deliverability. A damaged sender reputation can lead to your emails being blocked or sent to the spam folder by email providers.

Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that sending mail to public contact addresses for advertising purposes, even if 'foraged' from public websites, can be considered spam. These addresses are intended for potential customers to contact the companies, not for unsolicited advertising.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that sending emails to scraped addresses is often illegal, violating anti-spam laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM. These laws require explicit consent before sending commercial emails. Non-compliance can result in hefty fines and legal repercussions.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog responds that using scraped email lists can lead to deliverability issues due to a lack of engagement. Since recipients did not opt-in, they are less likely to open, click, or engage with your emails, resulting in low engagement rates that signal to ISPs that your emails are not valuable.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum points out that sending to scraped lists often results in poor engagement because recipients are not expecting your emails and may not be interested in your offers. This lack of interest can lead to low open rates, click-through rates, and high unsubscribe rates, negatively impacting your email marketing performance.

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor warns that scraped email lists often lead to higher spam complaint rates, as recipients who did not opt-in are more likely to mark your emails as spam. High spam complaint rates negatively impact your sender reputation and can result in your emails being blocked or filtered as spam.

Email marketer from GMass advises that when you send a prospecting campaign to unverified emails, you risk a 10% or higher bounce rate. If this bounce rate continues over several campaigns, your domain will get a warning.

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog explains that scraping email addresses and sending unsolicited emails can significantly damage your sender reputation, leading to deliverability issues. ISPs and email providers monitor sender behavior, and a high volume of unsolicited emails can result in your emails being marked as spam, blocked, or sent to the junk folder.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that sending mail to public contact addresses for advertising purposes, even if 'foraged' from public websites, can be considered spam. These addresses are intended for potential customers to contact the companies, not for unsolicited advertising.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that some filters, like Cloudmark, use user reports to make blocking decisions. Business filters prioritize the usefulness of incoming mail for the business, and user reports of spam in platforms like Google or O365 can negatively impact the sending domain's reputation, leading to emails being sent to the bulk folder or being blocked. If the sending domain is the same as other mail from the organization it will cause delivery problems for other mail as well as the spam.

Expert from Word to the Wise answers that while address harvesting itself is not illegal, using harvested addresses to send unsolicited emails violates CAN-SPAM. It also leads to deliverability issues, as these addresses are often old or honeypots. There is a good discussion about how list bombing can be done via scraping email addresses from public websites.

Expert from Spamresource shares that scraping practices are a violation of most ISPs' terms of service and email policy. It also points out that recipients on a scraped list have not opted in, leading to deliverability issues and potentially placing your IP address on blocklists.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that sending emails to scraped addresses could lead to being blocked by the companies being contacted or by broader business email filters. Some of her publicly available addresses are flagged in certain filters as indicators of spamming activity, which ESPs use to review customers.

Documentation from SparkPost emphasizes that good list hygiene is essential for maintaining a positive sender reputation and achieving high deliverability rates. Using scraped email lists undermines list hygiene practices, as these lists often contain outdated or invalid email addresses, leading to high bounce rates and spam complaints.

Documentation from CAN-SPAM Act highlights that the act requires you to have permission before emailing an address, and outlines specific rules for commercial email, including a clear opt-out mechanism. Sending to scraped lists without consent violates these regulations.

Documentation from GDPR explains that processing personal data (including email addresses) without explicit consent is a violation of GDPR regulations. Sending emails to scraped addresses without obtaining proper consent can result in significant fines and legal penalties.

Documentation from Mailchimp emphasizes that using purchased or scraped email lists violates their terms of service and can lead to account suspension. They also state that sending to these lists often results in low engagement rates, high bounce rates, and spam complaints, all of which negatively impact your sender reputation and deliverability.