But since those people didn’t give you explicit permission to contact them, sending an email to that list would be considered spam. On the surface, that list of addresses seems like it could contain some great prospects for your business, and you want to send them an email with a relevant offer they can’t refuse. For example, let’s say you purchased a list of email addresses from a local business organization. This can include unsolicited commercial emails or fraudulent messages, like those including lottery scams, phishing scams or computer viruses. At its core, spam is unsolicited, irrelevant email, sent in bulk to a list of people.