Planned 'no spam' legislation will resemble Missouri's No Call List

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Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon and State Rep. Chuck Graham of Columbia announced that Graham will introduce legislation in the Missouri House of Representatives during the 2003 session to create a "no spam" list to help Missourians eliminate unwanted commercial e-mails.|ret||ret||tab|

State Sen. Wayne Goode of St. Louis is expected to introduce similar legislation in the Missouri Senate. |ret||ret||tab|

The highly successful No Call list administered by Nixon's office will serve as the model for the anti-spam legislation. |ret||ret||tab|

The Attorney General's No Call list has grown to include almost 1.1 million residential phone numbers, representing an estimated 2.7 million Missourians.|ret||ret||tab|

"Spammers are uninvited house guests, and it's time for Missourians to have the option to protect their privacy," Nixon said. "Missourians, especially parents of young children, are rightly concerned about the messages that can be easily viewed by anyone with access to an electronic mailbox. We will work with Representative Graham and Senator Goode to craft legislation to help consumers stop those e-mails."|ret||ret||tab|

Graham added, "Missourians with e-mail addresses are increasingly frustrated as they have to clear out their mailboxes stuffed with messages advertising everything from get-rich-quick schemes to online Viagra to pornographic Web sites. Consumers should be able to protect themselves from these unwanted intrusions, much as they can with telemarketing calls under the No Call law."|ret||ret||tab|

Indications are that the problem of unsolicited commercial e-mails is only going to increase, Nixon said. An April 2002 study by the marketing firm The Radicati Group estimates that by the end of 2002, more than 2.3 billion spam messages will be sent on a daily basis, with that number expected to increase to more than 14.5 billion daily spam messages in 2006.|ret||ret||tab|

"One of the other problems we see is that many of the spam messages are not from reputable or legitimate businesses, adding the problem of fraudulent schemes to the burden of receiving unwanted and unsolicited e-mails," Nixon said. "When we reduced telemarketing calls made into Missouri by vigorously enforcing the No Call law, we also saw complaints to our office about telemarketing fraud cut in half. |ret||ret||tab|

An anti-spam law could help reduce fraud perpetrated over the Internet, as well." |ret||ret||tab|

According to information from the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, the most commonly seen unsolicited commercial e-mails advertise chain letters, pyramid schemes and other get-rich-quick schemes; offers of phone sex lines and ads for pornographic Web sites; quack health products and remedies; and even offers of software for collecting e-mail addresses and sending unsolicited e-mails.|ret||ret||tab|

"These junk e-mails are another way for marketers to bear little cost to themselves and instead shift costs to the recipient," Graham said. "I'll be asking my fellow legislators to join Senator Goode and me in protecting consumers on this issue."|ret||ret||tab|

Nixon's staff will help Graham and Goode develop a legislative plan that would include creation of a database of e-mail addresses as well as an easy way to register those addresses.|ret||ret||tab|

"Our No Call list has been tremendously popular in part because registration is quick, simple and free," Nixon said. "We want to create protection for e-mail users in Missouri that is just as user-friendly."|ret||ret||tab|

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