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.