Senator Charles Schumer's Letter to Timothy J. Muris Federal Trade Commission
The Honorable Timothy J. Muris
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
Dear Chairman Muris:
I am writing today to urge the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue a consumer advisory alert that will warn consumers about any products advertised through the reams of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages - more commonly known as spam - that are currently inundating e-mail in-boxes across the country.
While I am currently working on legislation that will institute broader federal restrictions on sending spam and enact tough penalties for spammers who break these new rules, I am concerned that millions of consumers will be ripped off before Congress acts. A recent FTC study indicates that 66% of the e-mail offers they receive are fraudulent while the Direct Marketing Association reports that 37% of consumers have bought products advertised by spam. It is likely, therefore, that many of Internet consumers have been taken in by false advertising, been ripped off, or worse.
As you aware, the only federal restrictions currently in place on spam are general criminal and civil fraud prohibitions with penalty provisions that offer slight fines from the FTC or in some cases prosecution by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Even worse, the vast majority of spam does not fit the legal definition for fraud outlined in the current law, leaving law enforcement officials with little or no means to stop it.
Given our current inability to stop the millions of pieces of fraudulent spam traffic that are sent each day, consumers must be made of aware of the risks inherent in purchasing products from advertisements that are more likely fraudulent than not. An FTC consumer advisory alert would be the perfect means to do this while also providing a valuable stopgap until new anti-spam legislation can be enacted.
The volume of junk e-mail currently jamming the Internet has brought its traffic to a virtual halt and spammers themselves often commit identity theft in order to send fraudulent messages. We should do everything in our power to discourage their activity. I urge you to immediately issue a consumer advisory alert to protect our consumers. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator