Student Marketing Group Inc. has been slapped with a lawsuit for allegedly deceiving students into supplying information for mailing lists.
The suit, filed Thursday by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, accuses the firm of deceptive business practices and other violations of the state’s consumer protection laws.
Student Marketing president Jan Stumacher was unavailable for comment at deadline.
According to Spitzer, the Lynbrook, NY-based firm deceived teachers into passing out surveys to students, telling them in a cover letter that the data was intended for “university financial aid offices and scholarship foundations.”
However, the data is rented for marketers of music videos, credit cards, clothes, cosmetics and student loans, Spitzer continued.
Student Marketing’s clients allegedly include AT&T, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, Mastercard, Visa, Mutual of Omaha Cos. and Reader’s Digest.
To facilitate the survey effort, Student Marketing created a not-for-profit front, Educational Research Center of America (ECRA), and provided it with a Washington, DC address so as to convince teachers and students that it is a government educational institution, Spitzer added. However, ECRA is located at “the home residence of its sold listed officer,” he noted.
ECRA has mailed an annual survey to teachers of 14 million students nationwide since 1999. In New York, it has sent surveys to tens of thousands of faculty members at nearly 2,000 educational institutions, Spitzer added.
Spitzer is seeking a court order that would bar Student Marketing from using the survey data. It has also asked for civil penalties.
Since 1998, Student Marketing has collected names, addresses, grade point averages and other data on children and young adults. Spitzer noted.
“As a father of school-age children, I am outraged by this company’s business tactics,” Spitzer said in a statement. “The company’s ultimate goal was not to help students or to research educational issues. Instead, the goal was to collect personal information about students and provide it to direct marketers.”
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