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On Defending Jigsaw & Similar...


This morning, an anonymous commenter attempted to drop a truth bomb on my post about how Jigsaw was blacklisted by Spamhaus. (They still are, by the way.)

In his comment, he points out that postal junk mail sucks (which I agree with), but he doesn't make it clear why it was important to share that tidbit with us. That spam is a suitable substitute for junk mail? I'm not buying it.

Also, he points out that "e-mail is new, and shiny." Actually, no, email has been around since the 1960s, and Internet (then ARPANET) email in a form similar today, using @ signs in addresses, since 1971.

He then goes on to point out that business contact databases charge too much money for spammers to be able to utilize them. Your bargain basement with a "$99 millions list" bought on Ebay? Maybe. Somebody selling big ticket items, who can still make money even with a higher customer acquisition cost? Hardly. I have actually seen companies buy lists from entities like Zoominfo, Jigsaw, and Netprospex, mail to them, and get busted for spamming. Most recently, I saw a domain registrar threaten to take away a domain after it was used in spam email sent by somebody who bought and mailed to one of these lists.

But hey, I could be completely wrong. In a different comment on my post, somebody called KADIGIGURU wrote, "The DMA publishes a B2B Guide to Ethical Marketing Best Practices. I am a Jigsaw customer, and they've walked me through how to use their (and other sources) data while following both Can Spam AND the DMA Guide to the letter!"

I replied that I'd be happy to discuss in further detail, or even offer up the opportunity for a rebuttal post. He never responded.

Where is that rebuttal? What are those ethical guidelines to follow when marketing to a purchased list of email addresses? Does that even exist? Even if somebody tells you "don't spam this list," while selling it to you, is it said with a wink and a nod? Anybody care to tackle this? (I'm not looking to provide an opportunity for a company representative to shill, so that offer is not open to Zoominfo, Jigsaw, and Netprospex.)

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