The Direct Marketing Association took the unusual step last week of naming a company that was the subject of one of its ethics citations in its semiannual Ethics Case Report.
The DMA cited Internet Support Services of Park Hill, NY, after the company failed to respond to calls and to mail outlining the association's concern about a fax broadcast campaign by the company. According to the DMA, the Internet Support Services sent a broadcast fax claiming that that it was “urgent” that the recipient respond because an Internet domain name similar to one owned by the recipient had been submitted for registration and could be used “in bad faith.”
According to the DMA's Committee on Ethical Business Practice, the fax was designed to unnecessarily alarm recipients into taking action. Mail sent to the company was returned as “address unknown” by the U.S. Postal Service, the DMA said.
A DMA spokeswoman said the association name Internet Support Services in the report because the company failed to respond to DMA inquiries. Other companies that were not named have responded and are working to change their business practices, she said.
A total of 23 cases were outlined in the DMA's Ethics Case Report for the first half of 2002. The full report is available at the-dma.org/library/guidelines/ethicscase.pdf.
