Is mass emailing for a job illegal?

[rickle42]

Hi,
I have been looking for a job with my BS in Math for 12 years now. I am getting kind of desperate. I am wondering if it is illegal to write a script to get all the email addresses from craigslist, monster , etc and email them a description of my target job and a resume and maybe a link if I get something decent together.
I could do this from my own server that I have installed locally so I would not need to use x10hosting for this.

1) Would x10 care if i used thier server?
2) Is it legal?

I realize this may not impress a lot of hiring managers, but I am just going by the law of numbers here. I figure if I send out 100,000 resumes someone has got to bite.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[alfred]

It is illegal, unless the recipients explicitly agreed that they wanted to receive your email.

 

[rickle42]

So I could be arrested for trying to get a job? sick.
But thank you for your knowledge, i will certainly not do it now.

 

[alfred]

Unless that job is illegal, you cannot get arrested for trying to get a job. However, you can try to get others to help earn for you. I have earned 115USD this month from AdBux. (or better yet, start a [really good] blog, I got 15USD in 3 weeks!). There is an entire internet worth of resource out there. I earned a lot from not doing much (online) and going through school (well, that is something else entirely).

 

[rickle42]

Then again, now that i think about it... craigslist has a special email address for each hiring manager that looks like this:
job-439176326@craigslist.org
i could just do a loop from 440000000 to 450000000 and it is 100% certain that they are ok with recieving applications at this email address. Would only take an hour to write i think.

Does this seem reasonable? Not even parsing the html, just sending to each of these emails. This would be legal right? I even checked and the numbers are chronological...

 

[alfred]

Well... no comment. See if anyone else can help, because this, I cannot say what the actual law is about there addresses. Craigslist might be more enlightening.

 

[rickle42]

I am going to look into that adbux thing. It may sound kinda sleazy but i am desperate. Is it something i could use programs to automate and make big bucks you think?

 

[alfred]

Actually, adbux is a proven site (even though it's owner is not) These site live off of REAL humans viewing ads, so my answer would be no. (No automation, that is) To see if a site is a scam, just type in "sitename SCAM" into Google and read the results.

Also, you can try to take online surveys, I now use MySurvey, and I have 30USD (10USD denomination) from them by check (none bounced).

p.s. there are programs, but most sites will detect and ban you immediately. Also, you could just post a lot here and cashout (haven't heard of anyone doing that yet, though).

 

[deadimp]

Why would you need to use emails with some site like Monster? Isn't that website meant for connecting potential employees with potential employers?

 

[rickle42]

I listed monster, but i hate monster. Craigslist is better and I dont think too many people are goin to look at the resume section there as it is very shabby.

 

[munim]

Yup... as far as i know.. its illegal. I think it will be more effective if you search in job sites.
Also, I know this is none of my business but if you are looking for a job for 12 years, then you must be doing something wrong in your resume, interviews, etc which is really putting off your employers. Or maybe you are not doing it whole heartedly. No matter how much stuff you do online, the best way to get a job is to have offline contacts and go for interviews.

 

[rickle42]

You may be right. But I am applying for programming jobs, not a salesman position. Couldnt they give a skills test to weed people out or something? Blizzard used to do that and I actually made the first cut with them 5 years ago. I have friends at ibm and sas, but I am ineligable to work there as the jobs all require either 5 years experience or to be currently enrolled. And also they tell me you cant really get friends jobs there any more.