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September 4, 2002 - The Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC), the nation’s oldest and largest telecommunications consumer group, along with the National Consumers League and Consumer Action join to fight the junk mail epidemic by asking the FTC to "Ban the Spam."

TRAC, NCL and Consumer Action filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission requesting that unsolicited commercial email (commonly referred to as "spam") be considered an unfair and deceptive trade practice as it causes harm to consumers.

The petition asks for a FTC rule that defines unsolicited commercial email as "deceptive and therefore unlawful" if it:

• Misrepresents the sender (in source or routing information)
  
• Misrepresents the subject or content of the email
  
• Fails to provide reliable contact information for the real party in interest
  
• Fails to provide a reliable opt-out system
  
• Is sent to an individual who has opted out or resigned from sender's list, or to whom sending unsolicited, commercial email is otherwise prohibited by law.

There is growing evidence of an increasingly out-of-control epidemic in "spam" email. One new study estimates unsolicited bulk e-mails now comprise 36 percent of all email traveling over the Internet, up sharply from 8 percent just one year ago.

"Americans are drowning in commercial spam email today and this situation is only going to get worse unless strong action is taken now," said Samuel A. Simon, chairman, Telecommunications Research & Action Center. "We are urging that the Federal Trade Commission take steps now to halt the outrageous excesses of unsolicited bulk email senders."

"The epidemic of commercial spam email in America is rapidly spiraling out of control" said Susan Grant, vice president of public policy, National Consumers League. "We need to treat this just like any other epidemic, which means that the government needs to get involved directly and impose tough measures to control the contagion before it spreads even farther."

"I worry more and more with each passing month that the explosion in spam email is going to cause consumers to turn their backs on the enormous consumer education power of the Web" said Ken McEldowney, executive director, Consumer Action. "We already hear stories about the burden of junk email threatening to drive consumers off of email altogether. It is time for Americans to say that enough is enough."