Cold email
An unsolicited email from an identifiable sender to someone with no prior relationship or consent, seeking a sale, meeting or other business benefit.
What it means
M3AAWG's position on cold email (November 2025) defines it as an unsolicited email from otherwise legitimate, identifiable senders that tries to create a business relationship, a sale, a business opportunity or other professional benefit from a recipient who has no prior relationship, connection or consent with the sender. It calls deceptive delivery methods used to mask cold email (lookalike domains, many sending accounts, random intervals, simulated engagement) an abusive practice.
The law depends on the recipient's country. CAN-SPAM in the US requires no prior consent but sets rules for commercial messages. In the EU, rules for business addresses differ by member state; France's CNIL allows B2B prospecting by email under legitimate interest when the message relates to the person's job and they can object.
M3AAWG lists the reputation signs of cold email as spam trap hits, blocklisting, high unknown-user bounces and high complaint rates.
Related terms
On this site
Sources
What this definition rests on. The wording is ours; the facts are theirs.
All 432 terms in the glossaryThe wiki: blocklists and bounce codes