An Email Extractor is a tool designed to extract email addresses from a variety of different sources, both online and offline. Some possible sources depending on the email extraction tool used, include HTTP protocols, HTTPS protocols, HTML files, and text files on your local disk. Many consider the Email Extractor's ability to extract email addresses from websites over the HTTP protocols to be its most valuable feature, as it can be used to generate lists of email addresses; however, this feature, if used improperly or if used to generate email addresses for unsolicited bulk emailing campaigns is also illegal in the United States.

Email extractors are marketed as being fast and easy to use tools which can use a variety of proxies in an attempt to multithread and access multiple websites at a time. Many of the more popular programs have been coded to work on both Windows PCs and computers running the Mac OS X operating system with universal binaries. Currently, most Email Extractors range in price from 20 USD to nearly 200 USD, with the more expensive products containing higher end features or corporate licenses for use on several computers. At this time, there are no free email extraction programs.

Email Extractor Software

Some of the features users look for include: the speed of the program in extracting potential email addresses, a validity checker for each of the email addresses which were extracted, multithreading, whether or not the program uses proxies to access websites, how the program sorts the email addresses that have been extracted, and whether or not the program will remove duplicate email addresses which it discovers.

Users also look to evaluate a program's ease of use before you purchase it. They may investigate the product over a limited evaluation period to may test out the program before purchasing it.

Anti-spam Laws

Using an email extraction program puts you at risk of violating a variety of anti-spam laws depending on where you live. In America, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 is a variety of laws regarding the use of unsolicited emails in marketing. Under the act, sending out unsolicited bulk email or spam, is regarded as a misdemeanor and can lead to maximum jail sentences of up to a year and fines depending on the extent of the spamming operation.

Furthermore, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 also regards the activity of harvesting email addresses by using an email extraction program as an aggravated offense which may result in even more serious fines or jail time if a person is convicted of a spamming or an email address harvesting crime.

Although there have only been a handful of convictions as a result of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, there is still a significant likelihood that you will be arrested if you use an Email Extractor to create mailing lists to send out unsolicited bulk email.