No Taste for Spam

Online consumers don’t trust direct marketers to self-regulate spam and support government restrictions on e-mail campaigns.

That’s the conclusion of a March survey of 1,410 e-mail users, conducted by the Spam Recycling Center (spamrecycle.com). The Center has petitioned Congress to regulate e-mail marketing and supports the “Can Spam Act” sponsored by Congressman Gary Miller (R-CA).

The bill enables Internet service providers (ISPs) to sue unscrupulous direct marketers up to $25,000 a day for unsolicited commercial messages sent through their systems. It’s modeled after a state law Miller sponsored while in the California legislature. Last summer, the Center’s founders including e-mail marketing service ChooseYourMail.com, Chicago, delivered to the Federal Trade Commission 150,000 unwanted e-mails sent in by consumers (September promo).

The survey drew three conclusions:

– Consumers believe that participating in e-commerce will generate spam. Nearly three quarters of respondents think it’s likelythat spammers get their e-mail addresses from e-commerce sites (see chart). That means that “e-mail users are equating the use of e-commerce Web sites with receiving spam,” the study says. That threatens the growth of online transactions, it warns, because 80 percent of consumers have strong negative feelings about unwanted e-mail.

– Consumers support non-content-restrictive legislation. Of three current or pending bills, survey respondents favored the federal bill that makes spamming a civil offense and allows ISPs to sue spammers for trespassing on networks. Their least-favorite option: a Colorado bill that allows spamming but has penalties for misleading practices. E-mail users are looking to the government to curb spamming” and give recipients legal recourse against offenders, the study says.

– Consumers don’t think self-regulation will work, and few trust the industry’s current efforts.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said the Direct Marketing Association “is working to protect the rights of spammers,” while 66 percent disagreed that the DMA “is working to protect consumers from spam.”

Only 40 percent of respondents had heard of the DMA’s e-Mail Preference Service. Of those, nearly 60 percent said they’re unlikely to register for it. More than half said they’re “very unlikely” to buy from a Web site simply because it uses DMA’s opt-out service.

The Recycling Center has collected 2.7 million e-mails since its May ’99 launch. The survey was conducted on the site.