I'm in the process of opening a cell phone recycling business and starting to plan my marketing techniques. I am wondering if it is illegal to gather phone numbers through Craigslist and use an SMS Marketing campaign to tell them about my business? It would be perfect for my business because my customers are people looking to sell their new/broken/used cell phones for cash. My thinking is that I am simply advertising my services to a customer who has asked for them, am I correct?
not really on ur topic, im looking to get phone numbers scraped from craigs list too, but u used the words " My thinking is that I am simply advertising my services to a customer who has asked for them, am I correct? " if u scrape u do not actually have a list of customers ASKING for ur service, u stole the numbers , and ur advertising ur service, there is a difference, basically, there is no OPT in for u to sms them. so it might be spamming ?? not sure.
But if I'm simply responding to an advertisement they posted and I'm interested in purchasing that item then they are in fact asking for my service.
It is illegal to market to them via SMS without an opt-in...although if you use a longcode and make the message seem targeted, i.e., "hey i saw your cl ad about your phone, i run a phone recycling company, if you are interested in recycling it, please let me know" I don't think they would have a way of really knowing you are bulk sending...
Might be against TOS of Craigslist (I never considered scraping off Craigslist, but 99% of the large commercial sites have restrictions against using bots...).If they catch you, they can sue in some countries.
Definitely against CAN SPAM. As someone said an opt-in is a required. But if you are doing it on a small scale with a personal looking number and saying "I saw your ad on CL...blahblah" then I doubt anyone is going to complain. Just be careful and know that what you're doing is technically not allowed.
Anyone know of a guide to using scrapebox to harvest coubtry specific cell numbers ? i cant figure it out cheers
Instead of annoying the shit out of cellphone users and breaking all kinds of laws, why don't you just run a bunch of ads on CL and Backpage? If you are paying for the phones people will find you and if you're paying well, they will flock to you. Often there are local forums with free B/S/T sections as well. Blackhat can sometimes be taken too far and used where it is completely unnecessary.
How risky is it using an auto poster on CL now days ? In terms of getting sued or charges pressed against me, I am in the USA
My question is: How exactly have these customers asked for your service by placing their phone numbers in CL posts? Unless they have mentioned your business specifically by name and are asking for you to contact them, this is scraping and stealing phone numbers. Many of these CL posters have probably listed their numbers for totally unrelated reasons, such as on a job resume. I would not do it if it were me. Some mobile subscribers are also billed per text. You may even risk some type of legal consequences by doing this, though I imagine it depends on the geographic region.
