DMA STATEMENT: FTC AND DOJ ANNOUNCE NEW ANTI-SPAM ENFORCEMENT INITIATIVE

Media Contacts: Jordan Cohen 212.790.1507 Jcohen@the-dma.org

NEW YORK, April 29, 2004 – The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) praised the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) for their joint-announcement today of a major new civil/criminal law enforcement initiative targeting spammers. The DMA hailed the announcement as a positive indication that the recently enacted CAN SPAM Act, in concert with other federal statutes, is proving to be a useful tool in combating spam.

"The CAN SPAM Act bestowed upon the FTC and DOJ powerful new weapons in its arsenal to combat spam," said Louis Mastria, director, public & international affairs, The DMA. "And today’s announcement shows that the federal government is focusing its attention and resources on finding and bringing cases against the kingpin spammers (both domestically and internationally) who defraud e-mail users, drain productivity, and generally wreak havoc across the Internet."

"But no one should hold the illusion that bringing legal cases against spammers is as easy as nabbing garden variety street-thugs," Mastria added. "Spammers are notorious for exploiting the Internet to evade detection, and the complexity involved in these cases means that they will take time to build. However, no doubt they are coming down the pike, and we anticipate that in the months and years ahead, spammers will be spending more time behind bars than in peoples in-boxes."

"Spammers have long thought they could hide forever in the shadows of cyberspace and continue to commit their crimes," said Mastria. "Today’s announcement, coupled with civil actions brought by the largest ISPs last month, puts spammers on notice that they can, and will, be found, and there will be serious consequences when that happens."

"Moreover, this is a highly positive development for a national law that is less than four months old," said Mastria. "This series of high-profile law enforcement activity is precisely as the law intended, and, no doubt, more announcements like this will follow in the weeks and months to come."

The DMA is the leading trade association for businesses interested in interactive and database marketing, with nearly 4,700 member companies from the United States and 53 other nations. Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every business segment as well as the nonprofit and electronic marketing sectors. Included are catalogers, Internet retailers and service providers, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host of other vertical segments, including the service industries that support them. According to a DMA-commissioned study, direct and interactive marketing sales in the United States are projected to have surpassed $2 trillion in 2002, including $126 billion in catalog sales and $34 billion in sales generated by the Internet. The DMA's Web site is www.the-dma.org, and its consumer Web site is www.shopthenet.org.

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