Getting ~28,000 devs' email addresses in a couple hours | Hacker News Reader

Getting ~28,000 devs' email addresses in a couple hours

carlsednaoui.com

25 pointscarlsednaoui11 comments

Except you can't use it for any legitimate purpose, as this would violate the CAN-SPAM Act.

Very true, but recruiters do use GH to get contact info... It's just easier if you dont have to deal with unsolicited emails.

I'm also guessing that developers are the hardest type of people to spam. The first time they see a weird email, they'd hit the "mark as spam" button, and if they still see stuff coming through, they'll either create a filter or track you down :-)

In this particular case, it's true. According to Section 7704(b)(1)(A)(i) [0] harvesting emails is considered an aggravated violation of the CAN-SPAM act and is subject to triple the statutory fines per section 7706(2)(f)(3)(C). The normal statutory fines are up to $250 per violation per section 7706(2)(f)(3)(A). Doing the math, 28000 * $250 is $7,000,000.

Fortunately, according to 7706(2)(f)(3)(B) this is capped at $2,000,000. However, this is prior to triple damages taking effect for aggravated violations of section 7704. This means that those 28,000 emails (should one be foolish enough to email them) carry a CAN-SPAM penalty of up to $6,000,000. Or about $214 per email address. I hope it's worth it.

[0] http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/15C103.txt

Ohh wow, I wasn't aware of this, thanks for sharing. Good thing I've already deleted the DB and have absolutely no plan on emailing any of these email addresses...

But the pro spammers use proxies that make it hard to trace activity back to a person. And many of the people spamming are not in the US.

Sorry, but nothing about this is shocking. There are a million easy ways to mine good lists, but as achille pointed out, they are basically worthless.

Hey David, I agree with you but the point I was trying to get across is that if you dislike receiving unsolicited emails then you should try to make it harder for random people (such as recruiters) to get your email addy.

... and have ~28,000 ignore any email you send.

Email addresses of technically-savvy people are nearly worthless unless you have something they desperately need. Any person to email me without a prior relationship or mutual connection goes straight to my "never do business with" list, if they manage to pass my spam filters. I imagine most developers are similar.

- "Any person to email me without a prior relationship or mutual connection goes straight to my "never do business with" list" Why would you have your email publicly available on GH if you only answer email from people with whom you've had a prior relationship (or have a mutual connection) with? I'm really curious to know since in both cases the person either already has your email address or he/she can ask for an intro from the mutual connection.

Also, playing devil's advocate here: What if someone is launching a new tool for developers? This list could come in really handy.

Edit: Following achille's comment, such a list could not be used for any legitimate purpose.

isn't that the same as saying any person who calls you without a prior... goes straight to your bin as well?

That could potentially close you off to some contacts you could have made but you are pushing away in my opinion.

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