COMMENTS CONCERNING CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA ON-LINE CONSUMER PRIVACY 1997 - P954807

June 18, 1997

Secretary
Federal Trade Commission
Room H-159
Sixth Street & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580

Re: Consumer Privacy 1997 -- Supplemental Comment, P954807

Dear Secretary:

On April 15, 1997, Consumer Federation of America submitted comments for the FTC's Public Workshop on Consumer Information Privacy, Session Two. We informed the Commission that we would present the experience on one consumer to illustrate the prevalence of unsolicited commercial e-mail. Please accept these supplemental comments in response to question 2.16 Thank you for your assistance.

Respectfully Submitted;

Jean Ann Fox
Director of Consumer Protection
Consumer Federation of America

Enclosure

Consumer Federation of America

Supplemental Comments

Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail

2.16 How widespread is the practice of sending unsolicited commercial e-mail? Are privacy or other consumer interests implicated by this practice? What are the sources of e-mail addresses used for this purpose?

Consumer Federation of America asked one consumer to collect and print out all unsolicited commercial e-mail received from April 12 to May 29 to illustrate the volume and type of e-mail received. Ninety-one messages were sent, ranging from religious exhortations to steamy x-rated, fully illustrated solicitations. The 91 e-mail solicitations were in the following categories:

Ten e-mails were x-rated. Offers included REAL adult videoconferencing at $2.95 per minute, pheromone perfumes with extravagant promises of effectiveness, requests to "check out the hottest new site on the internet," and a fully illustrated ad for "Hot Russian Girls" which included advice on the best long distance carrier for international calling. None of the headers on these e-mail ads stated the correct address of the consumer who received the messages. Most addresses were the same as the sender's name.

Three e-mails offered private investigation services. These ads urged consumers to "Find The Dirt On the Internet" and "access information all over the World Wide Web about your employees, friends and rivals by sending $11.95; offered a guide to exposing infidelity; and touted a "SNOOP COLLECTION." The latter four-page e-mail requested name, credit card information, mailing and billing addresses, and telephone number and offered four payment methods to send $34.95.

The remaining 77 e-mails pitched a wide variety of get rich quick schemes, products and services of dubious value, and ways to make money marketing on the World Wide Web. Very few messages carried the actual address of the e-mail recipient on the header. E-mails were up to five pages in length, listing travel deals, discount buyers clubs promising up to 60% off airfare, pyramid business opportunities; stock offer for a Direct Public Offering; grocery store coupon guide for $19.95; computer equipment and "free" or cut-rate America Online hookups. For $27.95 you can buy a book that will tell you how to "turn the World Wide Web into a money machine."

The longest e-mail was a thirteen page treatise on "wealth building on the internet." Options for paying $65.90 included paying by check by mail, check by fax, money order, VISA and MASTERCARD. The "Quick Check" option called for taping a completed check to the form and faxing it to the company for your account to be charged electronically. Other messages promise up to $800 a week in extra income in traditional work-at-home offers (just send $32.95).

For just $89 you can order one million e-mail addresses to launch your own spamming operation. To top that, 30 million addresses are offered for only US$149. Another e-mail asks if you have any idea what 11,700 $5 bills look like piled up on a kitchen table.

One unsolicited commerical e-mail message asked "Are YOU happy with life as it is?" Consumers who are bombarded with e-mail that wastes time, money, and Internet resources while exposing consumers to rip-offs and offensive messages can emphatically answer "No."