Millions of American Families Inundated With Direct Marketing for the Dead; New Service Offers Free Help to Stop Problem

A national telephone survey finds that almost 17 million households get direct marketing solicitations for the dead. 20% of these families consider the practice "highly offensive". A new company - Address Guardian - works with marketers and offers free help to families to stop the problem.

Charlotte, NC August 22, 2002: A new study released today shows that approximately 17 million households in the US receive at least occasional direct mail and telemarketing calls for the deceased. Of those, four million households say they get a lot" of direct mail and telemarketing calls for deceased persons.

Among those reporting getting solicitations for the deceased, about 20% described them as highly offensive" and another 18% said they were a major annoyance".

Direct marketing for the deceased apparently goes on for a long time. In another survey 53% of people reporting this problem say that the person had been dead for a year or more, and 6% said that the person had been dead for more than 10 years. The sponsor of both studies -- Address Guardian -- estimates that the average length of time a family must deal with solicitation of the deceased is 6 years.

When you consider that less than two and half million people die each year, the fact that 17 million people are getting direct mail for the deceased clearly shows that the direct marketing industry is doing a poor job of keeping their solicitation files up to date," said Jim Veilleux, President of Address Guardian. Given the high profile of privacy issues in todays society, direct marketers are making a big mistake in ignoring this problem."

Although older people were the most likely to report getting solicitations for the deceased, younger households also reported significant levels of mail and telemarketing. Other groups that tended to get more direct marketing for the deceased included non-married persons, households without children, whites and those with higher education.

In addition to the survey, which used a representative sample of 1,000 US adults, Address Guardian has been conducting a survey of families using its service -- which is designed to stop direct mail to the deceased. In that survey - which is ongoing - more than 30% of respondents said they get 5 or more pieces of direct mail a week and more than 40% reported at least one call each week addressed to the deceased. Two thirds of respondents said that they were less likely to buy from companies that solicited the deceased and another 10% said they felt worse about those companies.

A North Carolina company, Address Guardian was founded to stop this problem. The company is building a network of funeral homes, hospice organizations and others to provide families the opportunity to list the names of the deceased in the Address Guardian registry. Working with major direct mail list companies, Address Guardian then matches those names against direct marketing files to prevent mail and telemarketing from being sent to the deceased. In addition, Address Guardian is also talking to credit companies about using the information to prevent identity theft", a form of financial fraud, in which the thief opens fraudulent accounts in the name of the deceased.

Address Guardian offers its services to consumers both on a free and premium full service" basis. Both services can be reached at www.addressguardian.com. In addition, funeral homes around the country are beginning to offer Address Guardian as a service to their families.

For more information, contact Jim Veilleux, at 704-543-6613 or by e-mail at jveilleux@addressguardian.com.