Re: Cold emails are not considered spam?

On 2025-05-09 at 13:10:21 UTC-0400 (Fri, 9 May 2025 13:10:21 -0400)
Mark London <[email protected]>
is rumored to have said:

> Hi - Our site has recently been getting lots of "cold emails".

You have my sympathy.

> I've read according to a Google search, they aren't considered 
> "spam". 

You can get a Google search to tell you anything you like, especially 
now that they preface every search result with "AI" slop.

Whether a cold email is "spam" depends on the specific details. For 
example, there is a webpage of mine where I specifically solicit email 
to a particular address of mine regarding any errors on the page. Email 
from anyone to that address pointing out an error there is not spam. 
Email about anything else is spam. On the other hand, if I said "send 
your sales pitches to me" on that page, it would be hard for me to call 
anything sent "spam."

Basically, if an address is published, *some* people will claim that 
they have a right to send mail to it for whatever purpose comes to mind 
for them. Those people are called "Spammers."

Others will claim that if they publish an address with a clear 
solicitation for email of a particular sort that when they get the 
requested sort of mail it can still be spam if they dislike it for any 
reason. Those people are called "Cranks."

People have debated the definition of "spam" since its first use to 
describe unwanted bulk email. It has not proven a useful debate.

> And websites provide instructions and templates for people, on how to 
> send cold emails.  Or there are web sites that prove a service, to do 
> it for them.

Spammers, all.

> Most infuriating, is that cold emails send several follow up emails, 
> if the people receiving the cold emails, don't respond!  I've been 
> trying routine add custom filters to block them.  Although I keep 
> having to adjust them every week.  I'm wondering if anybody else has 
> this problem.  Thanks. - Mark

This is what it means to run your own mail server. The tweaks never 
really end.

Many of the sources of B2B "cold" emails operate from static locations 
so they are easy for DNSBLs to list and they do. Many send mail with 
URLs in the same domains repeatedly, and URIBLs can help a lot with 
those. Based on the pitches I see aimed at an unpublished business 
address, I know that a well-trained Bayes DB will nail them pretty well 
too. These tools help reduce how much you actually need to do manually 
Of course, SpamAssassin includes all of those  tools so if you have it 
set up properly you shouldn't have much trouble with these spammers, 
especially not with their repeat pestering.


-- 
  Bill Cole
  [email protected] or [email protected]
  (AKA @[email protected] and many *@billmail.scconsult.com 
addresses)
  Not Currently Available For Hire