So I have this really big Old email List.

by irawr Banned
12 replies
I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this already but I have an old email list from prior to can-spam. From my previous experiences mailing this list, things didn't go super well (prior to can-spam...)

Is there a way to email this list legally? My attorney didn't seem to think so and because the list is so ancient I never really thought about mailing it, so I didn't have him pursue it. The emails were obviously harvested but again, prior to the law being enacted, but yeah there's zero permission here.
#big #email #list
  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    You have a more than TWELVE year old list - and you want to email it now? You got legal advice from an attorney - but you want a better answer from a forum???

    Is anyone here still using an email address they had in 2002???
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    • Profile picture of the author irawr
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      You have a more than TWELVE year old list - and you want to email it now?
      These are from 1998 actually, list is 100+ million.

      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      You got legal advice from an attorney - but you want a better answer from a forum???
      Well, maybe somebody has a creative solution my attorney didn't think of. It's a pretty big list, so I'm digging around.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        Your "list" is equal to 1/3 of the total population of the US - from SEVENTEEN years ago. This 'list' was not responsive 17 yrs ago but you still think it's viable....nothing more to say except good luck.
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        Please do not 'release balloons' for celebrations. The balloons and trailing ribbons entangle birds and kill wildlife and livestock that think the balloons are food.
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        • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          You have a more than TWELVE year old list - and you want to email it now? You got legal advice from an attorney - but you want a better answer from a forum???

          Is anyone here still using an email address they had in 2002???
          Yes. My aol email is still active - but I like never look at it. Been on them and used to pay for it.
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        • Profile picture of the author irawr
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          Your "list" is equal to 1/3 of the total population of the US - from SEVENTEEN years ago. This 'list' was not responsive 17 yrs ago but you still think it's viable....nothing more to say except good luck.
          Oh I think you misunderstood what I meant, It DEFINITELY RESPONDED, my phone rang off the hook with legal threats.
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          • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
            Originally Posted by irawr View Post

            Oh I think you misunderstood what I meant, It DEFINITELY RESPONDED, my phone rang off the hook with legal threats.
            Are you really that stupid or are you just trolling?
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            • Profile picture of the author irawr
              Banned
              Originally Posted by Jeff Lenney View Post

              Are you really that stupid or are you just trolling?
              As far as what I did in the past? No. I used to mail as fast as I could, domain's weren't private back then man... Sometimes people would whois my domain and call me up and complain, I could tell the quality of the list by how much the phone rang.

              This thread. Kinda, there's lots of data around these days, I was hoping somebody had a dataset I could filter against. If I could peel out 50k emails that recently showed up in data somewhere, it might be worth it.

              Edit: also, if I put list on a site and pasted the link here, I would expect 500 people would grab it in 24 hours.
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  • Profile picture of the author KBrown
    I think you just answered your question... drop the list and move on.

    Good Luck!

    KBrown
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  • Profile picture of the author askmarcus
    upload them to autoresponders, then sent email out to test the open rate, click rate, and bounce rate

    but before that... did your email list know you? as in they remember you did sent them emails before
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  • Profile picture of the author bobby_shahzad
    Hello Irawr,

    I wonder why would you want to contact a list that is so old. There are many reasons why you should not

    1. Interest group of such users might be changed, a lot of people might not be interested in what you have to offer any more
    2. In my opinion, an over whelming number of these contacts would be abandoned emails. Such Emails that are abondoned become Spam traps over time as hotmail, yahoo etc recycle such emails. So you are going to get into big server repuation and IP block problem.

    IN our experience, 1-2 years old list is too old to mail to, let alone 12 year old. I think this list will be completely useless.

    A good way to test it will be to run a small random sample of 10K mail data first. you will get to know how good or bad your list is. I am sure 90% will bounce back. Dont blast all 100 million at once, you are never going to get anything out of it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      It's 17 years old - not 12 - not that it matters.

      Anyone who thinks mailing this list or testing it is a good idea - or believes any AR would allow you to upload it - is delusional in my opinion.
      Signature
      Saving one dog will not change the world - but the world changes forever for that one dog
      ***
      Please do not 'release balloons' for celebrations. The balloons and trailing ribbons entangle birds and kill wildlife and livestock that think the balloons are food.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10359594].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author irawr
      Banned
      Originally Posted by bobby_shahzad View Post

      IN our experience, 1-2 years old list is too old to mail to, let alone 12 year old. I think this list will be completely useless.

      A good way to test it will be to run a small random sample of 10K mail data first. you will get to know how good or bad your list is. I am sure 90% will bounce back. Dont blast all 100 million at once, you are never going to get anything out of it.
      I know you're reasonably experienced so thanks for the reply. I have no intention of mailing a sample of this list before it's heavily cleaned. Many of the domains don't even exist anymore. I was hoping somebody knew of a data provider that I could use to buy data from, which would give me a db of emails from this list that were recently active and I would potentially want appended data (name, interests.)

      There's either a company that can do it or there isn't. I was hoping somebody on WF from 2003ish was around that knew somebody.

      Edit: Experian hung up on me LOL, from what I gather this can be done but the cost with be insane. Screw it, I'll just give away a book filled with PDL offers as a magnet.
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