One day I'm going to get an e-mail announcing that Bob Wientzen has resigned from the DMA to run for Congress, and I'm going to miss the story. I will have erased it along with the dozens of pieces of spam I get each day — offers for Viagra, for the “hottest nude babes free,” for credit repair and for the chance to make millions with that Nigerian prince.
Then there are the live telephone calls inviting me to join membership clubs. Of course, I always say no, but it's a pain because weeks later I have to check my bank account and credit card bills to make sure that nobody has made an unauthorized debit of, say, $900.
It's sad, isn't it? But such annoyances are now part of our daily lives.
The only reason I don't put myself on TPS and all the other do-not-bother lists is that I report on direct marketing for a living and feel I shouldn't cut off the flow of information. But how many people do what I do — maybe 20 in the whole United States? That leaves almost 270 million people who may have little interest in wading through this mass of garbage.
It's not only that these intrusions are unsolicited — it's that they're so blatantly fraudulent.
And they hardly reflect well on direct marketing.
That's the subject of our special report on fraud (see page 33). Given the bad rap that direct marketing gets in so many places, we thought it was high time to examine the problem from many angles.
For starters, we look at some of the worst promotions — not those that consist of just a little advertising puffery, but those in which consumers are truly harmed.
We also ask how honest direct marketers are hurt by this phenomenon, and what they may be doing to enable the bad guys.
That's a difficult question. But as Patty Odell reports, the industry may need to tighten up its list rental approval process, to name one area.
Consumers themselves also have to wake up.
The report also includes a story by Kris Oser on one consumer's experience. And Beth Negus Viveiros reports on a program designed to alert seniors to common rip-offs.
Finally, we have a roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials, executives from the Better Business Bureau and a top industry attorney. Oh, yes: Despite advances in technology, there's nothing new about any of it, so we also have a piece on fraud in the late 1800s.
Hope you enjoy the issue. See you at the DMA Fall Conference in San Francisco.
