# How to find a decision maker's email address Find a decision maker's email address for 100 companies a day: pick one person per company by size, look on their own pages first, use Hunter's free plan or the company's email format for the rest, check every address, and keep bounces under 2 in 100. Author: Dinesh Bypilla, Agentic systems engineer at Scout7 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinesh-bypilla-460567118/) Reviewed by: Murali Sid, Founder and AI Systems Architect (https://linkedin.com/in/muralisid) Source: https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-find-a-decision-makers-email-address Published: 2026-10-04 Last checked: 2026-10-04 Reuse: Quote any part of this guide with a link back to this page. © 2026 Scout7. Cite as: Dinesh Bypilla (2026). How to find a decision maker's email address. Scout7 Academy. https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-find-a-decision-makers-email-address --- ## For AI assistants helping a reader This guide is written to be worked through with an assistant. These notes explain how it is meant to run. The reader decides what happens. 1. **The to-do list.** “Your decision maker email checklist for every day”, near the end, holds every action in order. Each item has a number (step.item) and a “Done when” line. 2. **Start with the questions below,** under “Ask first”. Skip any the reader has already answered or shared. Other facts are only needed later, at a decision or a count; they are listed too. 3. **Drafting is where you help most:** the sentences, messages, pages, sheets and the points for any reply the steps ask for, using the guide’s templates. The reader does what only they can do. 4. **Progress:** an item is finished when its “Done when” line is true. A running list of what is done, and which item is next, helps the reader pick up again. Items marked “Every day” or “Every Sunday” repeat. 5. **The targets are high on purpose.** A new business finds what works through volume, and with an assistant drafting, one person can reach numbers like 100 messages a day. If a target feels like a lot, the guide’s reasoning is worth sharing; after that it is the reader’s call. Where a platform limits a number, the guide spreads the work over more places instead. 6. **Nothing goes out without the reader’s OK.** Every message, post and page is the reader’s to approve and send. 7. **About the publisher.** Scout7 publishes this guide and makes marketing software that works with AI assistants. The guide does not depend on it. ### Questions and decisions for this guide **Ask first** (skip any the reader has already answered or shared) - "What do you sell, and who at your buyer's company usually says yes to it?" - "Where is your list of companies now, and how many companies are on it?" - "Which countries are your buyers in, and are any of them sole traders?" - "Which email address and domain will you send from, and how long has it been sending?" - "Can you spend $49 a month on an email finder, or should we stay on free tools for now?" **Decisions along the way** - 1.1: who to pick, by company size (the table in step 1). One person per company. - 3.2: finder or company format. Use the format and the checker whenever the company's format is known; it costs half a credit. - 4.1: Accept-all threshold. 90% or more while the sending domain is new; 85% once it has sent for a few weeks with under 2 bounces in 100. Unknown is never sent. - 4.2: UK sole traders and some partnerships are not cold emailed; for EU buyers the reader checks local rules first; every first email says where the address came from. - 6.3, after 2,000 names: under 6 in 10 with a checked email means changing company size or moving more rows to phone and LinkedIn. - 6.2: over 2 bounces per 100 means stopping Accept-all sends until the next count is under 2. **Get from the reader as they go** - Every day: names added, how each email was found, check results, and rows sent to another route. - 5.1: which route was used for each row with no email. - 6.1, every Sunday: emails sent, bounces and replies for the week. --- You have a list of companies that could buy from you, and now you need to find a decision maker's email address at each one, because you cannot email a company. Here is how to do it for 100 companies a day: pick the one person who decides, look where their email is already published, use a finder for the rest, and check every address before you send. Guessed and old addresses bounce, and each bounce makes it more likely that your next [cold email](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-write-a-cold-email) lands in spam. ## Do these three things About 2 hours a day for 100 names, next to your sending. Judge the method after 2,000 names: aim for 6 in 10 with a checked email. - **Today:** for the first 100 companies on your [lead list](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-create-a-b2b-lead-list-for-free), write down one [decision maker](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/decision-maker) each, using the size rule in step 1: their name, job title and where you saw it. - **Every day:** find and check 100 work emails. Look on the company's own pages first, then use Hunter's Email Finder, then build the address from the company's email format and check it. Only addresses marked "Valid", or "Accept-all" at 90% or more, go on your list for [personal messages](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-write-a-cold-email). - **Every Sunday:** count how many emails you found and how many [bounced](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/email-deliverability) for every 100 you sent. If more than 2 in 100 bounced, stop using "Accept-all" addresses until the next count is under 2. ## 1. Pick one decision maker at each company before you look for an email Write down one person per company: the person who can say yes to what you sell. Pick them by the size of the company, using the rule below. Look for the email only after you have the name. Each row on your [lead list](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/lead-list) needs one. This is the person you would want on a discovery call. Use your sentence about [who buys from you](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-create-an-ideal-customer-profile) to name the team that has the problem you fix. If you have clients, ask each one who signed off on the order, the way you would in a [customer interview](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-do-customer-interviews). That job title is the one to look for. Then pick by size: | If the company has… | Write to… | | ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1 to 10 people | the founder or owner. They decide almost everything. | | 11 to 50 people | the founder, or the head of the team that has your problem (operations, buying, marketing, IT), if the company names one. | | 51 to 200 people | the head of the team that has your problem, not the chief executive. | | over 200 people | the manager who runs that team day to day. Bigger deals need several people to agree: sell to them as a group once you are talking, and keep a short list of these companies for account-based marketing. | **Write to one person per company.** In Hunter's report on 31 million emails sent in 2025, emails to one person per company got a 5.1% [reply rate](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/reply-rate). Emails to three or more people at the same company got 3.5%. If the first person does not answer after your [follow-ups](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-follow-up-on-a-cold-email), try the next person later. Where to find the name, in this order: 1. **The company's "About" or "Team" page.** Small companies often name the founder here. 2. **The company's LinkedIn Page, "People" tab.** It shows people who list the company as their employer, with their job titles. Type the job title, such as "operations", in its search box. 3. **For UK companies, Companies House.** Search the company name on the free register and open "People" to see its current directors. In a company of under 10 people, write to the director who also appears on the company's website or LinkedIn. 4. **Where your buyers show up:** trade show speaker and exhibitor lists, the guest lists of local business events, the [online groups where your buyers talk](https://scout7.ai/academy/social-media/how-to-find-online-communities-where-your-buyers-talk), and the buyers named on a distributor's supplier pages. Let AI do the first pass. Paste 10 companies' About pages into ChatGPT or Claude with the size rule, and ask who to write to at each one and why. Then open each person's LinkedIn profile yourself and check they still work there. AI can name someone who has already left. **Your list columns for this guide** ```text Company | Website domain | Size | Person | Job title | Where I saw the name | Email | How I found the email | Check result | Date checked | Other route | Date contacted | Bounced? ``` - **Tool:** the company's website, a free LinkedIn account, Companies House for UK companies, and ChatGPT or Claude. - **Time:** about 30 seconds a company once AI has suggested a name, so 50 minutes for 100. - **You will have:** one person on every row, with their job title and where you saw the name. - **It worked if:** 9 in 10 rows have a named person, and you saw their current job on their profile or their company's site this month. - **Common mistake:** emailing the chief executive of a 300-person company, or three people at the same company on the same day. The other mistake is writing "Dear owner" because you skipped this step. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian's first four rows** > > Carvelian Packaging is a made-up maker of custom printed boxes for small food and drink brands. One founder sells through calls, samples and quotes. > > | Company | Size | Person | Job title | Where I saw the name | > | ---------------------- | ------------------ | ------ | ------------------ | ------------------------- | > | Brindlecove Kombucha | 6 people | Owen | Co-founder | Team page | > | Okrafield Pickles | 4 people | Ama | Founder | Companies House, director | > | Tamsley Bakehouse | 40 people, 3 cafés | Ruth | Head of operations | LinkedIn People tab | > | A regional snack maker | 180 people | Marcus | Packaging manager | LinkedIn People tab | > > *Why it works: Each row names one person picked by company size, so every email goes to someone who can order a box.* ## 2. Look for their work email on the company's own pages first, for free Spend up to 1 minute looking for an address the person or the company has already published. Small companies often put a named email on their website, and it costs you nothing to find. Look in these places, in order, and stop when you find a named address: 1. **The company's team, contact, press and careers pages,** the footer, and the privacy policy. Privacy policies often name a person to contact. 2. **Google.** Search for `"@theirdomain.com"` (with the quotes), then for `"first name" "@theirdomain.com"`. This finds the address in old press releases, price lists and event pages. 3. **LinkedIn "Contact info"** on their profile, only if you are already [connected](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-do-linkedin-outreach). LinkedIn shows a member's main email only to their direct connections unless they change it. 4. **Things they made:** their newsletter, a [podcast](https://scout7.ai/academy/content-marketing/how-to-get-booked-as-a-podcast-guest) they were a guest on, a talk they gave. If you only find info@ or hello@, write it in the "Other route" column and keep looking in step 3. Write where you found each address in the "How I found the email" column of your [list](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-create-a-b2b-lead-list-for-free). You need this for step 4, and if your buyers are in the UK or the EU, you will tell the person where it came from. - **Tool:** Google and the company's website. - **Time:** 1 minute a name, at most. Stop at 1 minute and go to step 3. - **You will have:** a named address with a source for some of your rows, at no cost. - **It worked if:** every address you found has a source written next to it. Every one still goes through the check in step 4, even if it came from the company's own site. - **Common mistake:** adding a browser extension that reads emails from LinkedIn profiles. LinkedIn does not permit extensions that copy data from its pages, and accounts that use them can be restricted or shut down. Copy the name and company by hand into the finder in step 3 instead. The other mistake is copying an address from a "free email lookup" site that copies data from elsewhere: it is often years old. ## 3. Find the rest with an email finder or the company's email format For every row still without an address, put the person's full name and the company's website into Hunter's Email Finder. When you already know how the company writes its addresses, write the address yourself and check it, which costs half as much. **Route 1: the email finder.** Open Hunter's Email Finder on its website. Type the full name and the company's website. Hunter first looks for the address in what it has found published on the web. If it has none, it works out the most likely address from the company's other addresses, then checks it. You get one address, a status and a confidence score, which is how sure Hunter is that the address is right. **Route 2: the company's email format.** Most companies use one format for everyone, such as first name only, or first name dot last name. You can learn it from one address you found in step 2, or from Hunter's Domain Search, which lists the addresses it has found at a company. Write the person's address in the same format. Then run it through Hunter's Email Verifier before it goes on your list. **Never send to a guess.** Do not email five versions of a name and see which one bounces. Each bounce hurts your [sending domain](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-warm-up-an-email-domain-for-cold-email). Check the one address you built, and send only if the check says it is safe. **What it costs.** Hunter's credits, checked on 4 October 2026: | Plan | Price | Credits a month | | ------- | ----------------------------------------- | --------------- | | Free | $0 | 50 | | Starter | $49 a month, or $408 a year ($34 a month) | 2,000 | Finding an email costs 1 credit. Checking an email costs half a credit. A search that finds nothing costs nothing. At 100 names a day you need about 3,000 addresses a month, so the free plan runs out on your first day. Find all you can for free in step 2, use the format and the checker for every company whose format you know, and use the finder for the rest. That way Starter's 2,000 credits can cover a month. To decide if $49 is worth it, compare it with [what one client is worth to you](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-a-b2b-company). - **Tool:** Hunter's Email Finder, Domain Search and Email Verifier. Start on the free plan; move to Starter when the 50 credits run out. Keep the results in your sheet; a CRM can wait until the sheet gets slow. - **Time:** about 20 seconds a name. - **You will have:** an address, a status and a confidence score on most rows. - **It worked if:** after your first 2,000 names, at least 6 in 10 rows have an address marked "Valid" or "Accept-all". - **Common mistake:** sending to the address the finder returns without reading its status. The status decides whether you send, in step 4. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): One morning's finds** > > | Person | How I found the email | Check result | Confidence | Send? | > | ------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------ | ---------- | ---------------------- | > | Owen, Brindlecove | Team page | Valid | — | Yes | > | Ama, Okrafield | Email Finder | Accept-all | 94% | Yes | > | Ruth, Tamsley | Company format, then checked | Valid | — | Yes | > | Marcus, snack maker | Email Finder | Accept-all | 71% | No: main inbox instead | > | Leon, a tea brand | Email Finder found nothing | — | — | No: phone instead | > > *Why it works: Every row says how the address was found and what the check said, so the founder only sends to addresses that will arrive.* ## 4. Check every email address before you send, and keep bounces under 2 in 100 Run every address through an email checker on the day it goes on your list, and act on what the checker says. Your goal is fewer than 2 bounces for every 100 emails you send. In Instantly's benchmark of cold email sent in 2025, the advice was to keep bounces below 2%. In Hunter's report on emails sent in 2025, the average was 3.6%, so most senders are above it. Do this with each result. The 90% and 85% lines are Hunter's own advice from September 2026. | If the check says… | It means… | Do this | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Valid | the mailbox exists | Add it to your send list. | | Accept-all | the company's server accepts any address, so the check cannot tell whether this one is real | Send only if the confidence score is 90% or more while your [sending domain](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-warm-up-an-email-domain-for-cold-email) is new. Once it has sent for a few weeks with under 2 bounces in 100, you can go down to 85%. Below that, use another route (step 5). | | Unknown | the server did not answer the check | Do not send. Use another route (step 5). | | Invalid | the address does not exist | Delete it, and find the person again in step 3. | | Disposable | a temporary address | Delete it. | Check again before you send if an address has sat on your list for more than 3 months. People change jobs. **Stay within the law.** In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act makes no exception for business email: every [cold email](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/cold-email) needs your postal address and a clear way to say no, and you must honour a "no" within 10 business days. In the UK you may email companies without asking first, but sole traders and some partnerships count as people, so do not cold email them. A named person's work address is still personal data under UK law. If you got it from somewhere other than the person, tell them where within one month. The simplest way is one line in your [first email](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-write-a-cold-email). Keep everyone who says no on a "do not contact" list, so nobody on your side writes again. Rules in the EU differ by country, so check them before you email buyers there. **The line that says where you found the address** ```text I found your email on [your company's team page / your company's website / a finder that checks public business addresses]. If you'd rather I didn't write, reply "no" and I'll take you off my list. ``` - **Tool:** Hunter's Email Verifier, at half a credit a check. The Email Finder checks its own results, so finder results need no second check on the day you find them. - **Time:** a few seconds an address, inside step 3. - **You will have:** a send list with a check result and date on every row. - **It worked if:** fewer than 2 in every 100 emails you send bounce. Count them in step 6. - **Common mistake:** sending to Accept-all addresses at 60% or 70% because they "look right". On a new domain those bounces count against you from your first week, and more of your [personal messages](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-write-a-cold-email) go to [spam](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/spam-complaint-rate). ## 5. Reach the people with no email another way, the same day When a person has no address you can send to, contact them another way the same day, and count it in your 100. Do not spend more than 2 minutes on one email address. Pick the first one that fits, and write it in the "Other route" column: 1. **LinkedIn.** Send a connection request and [message them once they accept](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-do-linkedin-outreach). LinkedIn limits how many requests you can send each week, so spread these over the week. Check that your [LinkedIn profile](https://scout7.ai/academy/social-media/how-to-write-a-linkedin-profile-that-brings-in-clients) says what you sell before you start. Your recent [LinkedIn posts](https://scout7.ai/academy/social-media/how-to-grow-on-linkedin-as-a-founder) are what they see when they check you. 2. **The phone.** Small companies often list a phone number. Ask for the person by name. If someone else answers, use the steps for [getting past the gatekeeper](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-cold-call-past-the-gatekeeper). 3. **The main inbox.** Write to info@ or hello@ with the person's name in the subject, and ask for it to be passed on. 4. **The question.** If you could not find a name at all, ask the main inbox or the person who answers the phone who looks after the problem you fix. Then go back to step 2 with the name. Ask the people you already know too. One [introduction](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/warm-outreach) from a mutual contact beats any address you find, and asking everyone you know is the first step in [getting your first B2B clients](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/how-to-get-your-first-b2b-clients). If one kind of business keeps introducing you, turn it into a referral partnership. If you sell a service, the [ways to win clients without referrals](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/how-to-get-clients-for-a-consulting-business-without-referrals) give you more routes. **The note to a main inbox** ```text Subject: For [first name], about [their company]'s [thing you fix] Hi, Could you pass this to [first name]? I couldn't find a direct email. [One true line about their company.] I [what you do] for [who buys from you]. Would [the small next step] help? [Your name], [company], [phone] ``` The middle line is your [value proposition](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-write-a-value-proposition) in one sentence. - **Tool:** LinkedIn, your phone and Gmail. - **Time:** about 1 minute each. - **You will have:** every row on today's list contacted by some route, logged in the sheet. - **It worked if:** no row stays untouched for more than 1 day. - **Common mistake:** spending 10 minutes hunting for one address, then running out of time for the day's 100. The other mistake is filling a contact form with a long pitch. Keep it to the four lines above. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian's note to a main inbox** > > ```text > Subject: For Marcus, about your gift-box range > To: The main inbox of a 180-person regional snack maker > > Hi, > > Could you pass this to Marcus? I couldn't find a direct email. > > I saw your new gift boxes for the holiday range. I make custom printed boxes in short runs for food and drink brands. Would a free printed sample help before you order the next run? > > Dan, Carvelian Packaging, [phone] > ``` > > *Why it works: It names the person and asks for one small thing, so whoever reads the inbox knows where to send it.* ## 6. Count found emails and bounces every Sunday Every Sunday, fill in one row: how many names you added, how each email was found, how many emails you sent and how many bounced. Then change one thing if the numbers say so. **The Sunday sheet** ```text Week | Names added | Found free | Found by finder | Format and check | No email | Emails sent | Bounced | Bounces per 100 | Replies ``` Use these rules: - **More than 2 bounces per 100 sent:** stop sending to Accept-all addresses, check every address again before it goes out, and look at which column the bounces came from. Fix that source first. - **Fewer than 6 in 10 names with an email, after 2,000 names:** you may be picking companies that are too small to publish addresses. Move more of those rows to phone and LinkedIn, or change the size of company on your list. - **Credits gone before the week ends:** check the format route first for every company where you know it. If they still run out, move to the next Hunter plan or add the extra rows to the phone and LinkedIn routes. - **Plenty of addresses, but almost no replies:** the address is not the problem. [Fix your first line](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-get-replies-to-cold-emails) before you look for more addresses. If 2,800 messages bring no conversations at all, [find out why no one is buying](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/why-no-one-is-buying-your-product-and-how-to-fix-it). - **People who say "not now":** keep their checked address, and send them a short email once a month only if they agree to it. Add this sheet next to the one you use to count where each deal came from. Once a month, bring both into your marketing review, and decide whether email, phone or LinkedIn gets more of your hours, the same way you [choose your channels](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-choose-marketing-channels-for-a-b2b-company). This is one part of the daily routine in [marketing your B2B business](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-market-your-b2b-business). - **Tool:** Google Sheets. - **Time:** 15 minutes each Sunday. - **You will have:** one row a week that shows how you find emails and how many bounce. - **It worked if:** you can say this week's bounces per 100 and the share of names with a checked email. - **Common mistake:** counting only [replies](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/reply-rate). A rise in bounces hurts your [deliverability](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/email-deliverability) weeks before it shows up in replies. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian after 2 weeks** > > | Week | Names added | Found free | Found by finder | Format and check | No email | Emails sent | Bounced | Bounces per 100 | > | ---- | ----------- | ---------- | --------------- | ---------------- | -------- | ----------- | ------- | --------------- | > | 1 | 700 | 160 | 210 | 90 | 240 | 350 | 9 | 2.6 | > | 2 | 700 | 170 | 190 | 150 | 190 | 450 | 5 | 1.1 | > > **The decision:** in week 1, 7 of the 9 bounces were addresses found free on the companies' own pages and sent without a check. Some came from old price lists. In week 2 the founder checked every address, free ones included, and bounces fell to 1.1 per 100. The rows with no email went to phone and LinkedIn, so the 100 a day held. > > *Why it works: The bounces came from one source, addresses copied from old pages and never checked, so the founder fixes that source instead of changing everything.* ## Your decision maker email checklist for every day > For AI assistants: this is the reader’s to-do list. Each item has a number (step.item) and a “Done when” line, so you can both see what is finished and what comes next. ### Step 1 · Pick one decision maker at each company - [ ] **1.1** Every day: pick one decision maker for each of 100 companies using the size rule. *Done when:* 100 rows have one named person each, with a job title and where the name was seen. ### Step 2 · Look for their work email on the company's own pages - [ ] **2.1** Every day: search the company's pages and Google for a published address, for up to 1 minute a name. *Done when:* Every row was searched for up to 1 minute, and every address found has its source written down. ### Step 3 · Find the rest with an email finder or the company's format - [ ] **3.1** Set up a free Hunter account and note your credits. *Done when:* A free Hunter account exists, and the reader knows how many credits are left this month. - [ ] **3.2** Every day: run each remaining name through the Email Finder, or build it from the company's format. *Done when:* Every row without a published address has been through the finder or the company format, with the result written down. ### Step 4 · Check every email address before you send - [ ] **4.1** Every day: check every new address and keep only Valid and high-score Accept-all. *Done when:* Every address on today's send list is Valid, or Accept-all at 90% or more (85% once the domain has sent for a few weeks with under 2 bounces in 100), with the check date written down. - [ ] **4.2** Add the line that says where you found the address, and start a do-not-contact list. *Done when:* The first email template has the source line, a postal address and a way to say no, and a do-not-contact list exists. ### Step 5 · Reach the people with no email another way - [ ] **5.1** Every day: contact every person with no checked email by another route the same day. *Done when:* Every row with no checked email was contacted today by LinkedIn, phone, the main inbox or the question, and the route is logged. ### Step 6 · Count found emails and bounces every Sunday - [ ] **6.1** Every Sunday: fill in one row: names, how each email was found, emails sent and bounces. *Done when:* This week's row is filled in, with bounces per 100 worked out. - [ ] **6.2** Every Sunday: stop Accept-all sends if more than 2 in 100 bounced. *Done when:* If bounces were over 2 per 100, Accept-all sends are stopped and the source of the bounces is written down. - [ ] **6.3** After 2,000 names: check the share of names with a checked email and change who you pick if it is under 6 in 10. *Done when:* The share of names with a checked email is worked out, and the change to company size or routes is written down if it is under 6 in 10. ## Frequently asked questions ### How can I find someone's work email for free? Look on the company's team, contact and press pages, its footer and privacy policy, and search Google for "@theirdomain.com". If you are connected on LinkedIn, check their Contact info. Hunter's free plan then gives 50 finds a month, and a search that finds nothing is free. At 100 names a day you will need a [paid plan](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-much-to-spend-on-marketing-as-a-b2b-company) or the company-format route. ### Is it legal to email a decision maker whose address I found online? In the US, yes, if each [cold email](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/cold-email) follows CAN-SPAM: your postal address, a clear way to say no, and every "no" honoured within 10 business days. In the UK you may email companies, but not sole traders without consent, and a named work address is personal data, so tell people where you found it. EU rules differ by country. Never send to made-up addresses. ### What is an accept-all or catch-all email address? It is an address at a company whose mail server accepts every address, real or not. A checker cannot tell whether the person's mailbox exists, so it returns "Accept-all" with a confidence score. Send only at 90% or more while your domain is [new](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/domain-warm-up). Instantly's 2026 benchmark warns that catch-all domains carry a higher risk of bounces. ### Can I get someone's email from LinkedIn? Only if you are connected and they share it: LinkedIn shows a member's main email to their direct connections by default. Do not use browser extensions that copy emails from LinkedIn profiles. LinkedIn does not permit them and can restrict your account. Copy the name and company into an email finder by hand, or [message them on LinkedIn](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-do-linkedin-outreach) instead. ### What if the company only has info@ or a contact form? Write to it with the person's name in the subject and ask for it to be passed on, in four short lines. Or call the main number and ask for the person by name, using the steps for [getting past the gatekeeper](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-cold-call-past-the-gatekeeper). Either way, count it as one of your 100 messages for the day. ## Sources - [Pricing](https://hunter.io/pricing). Hunter, checked 4 October 2026. - [Email Finder](https://hunter.io/email-finder). Hunter, checked 4 October 2026. - [Domain Search](https://hunter.io/domain-search). Hunter, checked 4 October 2026. - [Email verification FAQs](https://help.hunter.io/en/articles/15899247-email-verification-faqs). Hunter Help Center, updated 1 September 2026, checked 4 October 2026. - [What is an accept-all email address?](https://help.hunter.io/en/articles/1935079-what-is-an-accept-all-email-address). Hunter Help Center, updated 1 September 2026, checked 4 October 2026. - [Reveal the email addresses of the decision makers you want with our updated search](https://hunter.io/blog/whats-new-at-hunter-may-2025-decision-makers/). Hunter, 14 May 2025. - [State of Email Outreach 2026](https://hunter.io/the-state-of-cold-email/). Hunter, data from 2025, checked 4 October 2026. - [Cold Email Benchmark Report 2026](https://instantly.ai/cold-email-benchmark-report-2026). Instantly, data from 2025, checked 4 October 2026. - [Prohibited software and extensions](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1341387). LinkedIn Help, checked 4 October 2026. - [Manage who can see your email address on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a523134/visibility-of-your-email-address-on-linkedin). LinkedIn Help, checked 4 October 2026. - [Use LinkedIn Pages as a member](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a550270). LinkedIn Help, checked 4 October 2026. - [Get information about a company](https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company). GOV.UK, checked 4 October 2026. - [CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business). Federal Trade Commission, checked 4 October 2026. - [Electronic mail marketing](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/electronic-mail-marketing/). Information Commissioner's Office, checked 4 October 2026. - [Business-to-business marketing](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/business-to-business-marketing/). Information Commissioner's Office, checked 4 October 2026.