I can’t tell you how many people over the past few days have told me they have a copy of the Ashley Madison hacked database and are sure it will be of some value to them – like they can somehow make money selling it or even better, by emailing the customers on the list, promoting their own products or services.
First of all, you may have a copy of the database, but so do about 20 zillion other people. What dumb ass would buy something that at this point anyone can download for free?
That should just be common sense – but apparently not.
Now to all those brilliant people out there right now making their own master email list from that Ashley Madison database, let me share a little bit of bad news with you —
Spamming is illegal
Sending out junk email, or unsolicited commercial email advertisements (also known as spam ) is in fact a criminal offense and has been for a long time now – and guess what? Several people have been convicted of this crime and have served time in prison for it. One guy is serving a 90 month sentence while another is serving 5 years. One lucky bastard got nailed for spamming but he only had to serve three years probation, six months house arrest, and a $10,000 fine.
It amazes me how many people don’t realize that spamming is illegal and yes they do go after non US citizens. So for those of you reading this post who don’t live in the United States, don’t think you will get away with it.
On April 1, 2006, Mounir Balarbi, of Tangier, Morocco, was the first person outside the United States to have an arrest warrant validated under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Mounir’s trial was held in absentia, and he was sentenced in a closed session.
Beyond being a criminal offense, you also face multi-million dollar civil lawsuits as well. Because the law in this area is now so clearly defined, since the Ashley Madison hack, certain companies have already started to gear up and ready themselves to go after dumb asses who use the Ashley Madison database to send out spam.
In other words, if you try and use that data to send out your own email advertisements, you are a lawyers wet dream. They will come after you.
It really does amaze me how many people don’t realize that spamming illegal and how many people are excited to get their hands on the Ashley Madison database thinking it’s a gold mine for them.
Think again my friends. That list could end up being your worst nightmare.
The crazy thing is, just yesterday Yahoo news reported that junk email hit a 12 year low but that apparently 49% of our email is still junk.
