Is Mass Texting Illegal or Just Annoying?

[Account Closed]

I've gotten all of my deals from cold calling. Lately however I noticed that they're coming from text messages so I decided to start sending text blasts a few days ago. I've been sending around 300 per day. Most of the responses just say "No" or "wrong number" but some people are actually really angry. People say I'm harassing them and one woman said she was going to report me to the DRE. On the flip side I've been getting far more leads doing this than I was from just cold calling. I know its really annoying to get unwanted texts but it's just so tempting to send them because of the leads I'm getting. Still I'm honestly worried about the legality of this and that someone is eventually going to do something. Today a colleague of mine said it was "illegal" and that the "feds were going to show up at my door" and that I might "go to jail". That seemed pretty exaggerated to me but what do you think? Beyond being illegal is it just going to make everyone hate me?