Deceased Do Not Contact List

The Direct Marketing Association is a trade organization that governs member companies that use direct mail, email, and telephone marketing methods. The D.M.A. offers consumers three services to reduce unwanted personal (not business) solicitations by its member companies via mail, telephone, and e-mail:

• MPS (Mail Preference Service)
• TPS (Telephone Preference Service)
• E-MPS (E-Mail Preference Service)

In addition to D.M.A. member companies, which must "scrub" their marketing lists against these consumer preference lists, the D.M.A. also makes these preference lists available to subscriber companies that are not members of the D.M.A. so that they can scrub their own lists.

D.M.A. Deceased Do Not Contact List (DDNC)

In October 2005, the Direct Marketing Association enacted a Deceased Do Not Contact List that family members, friends, and caregivers may use to remove a decedent's name from marketing lists used by D.M.A. member companies. Once registered, the decedent's name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address are placed into a 'do not contact' file, and D.M.A. member companies are required to remove listed individuals from their marketing lists. The D.M.A. also makes the list available to non-D.M.A. member companies.

The updated file is distributed to D.M.A. member companies and non-member subscribing companies once every three months, so it may take some time to begin to see a noticeable decline in the volume of solicitations received.

There is a $1 fee for registering, charged to a credit card, in order to provide verification and to prevent fraudulent use of the system by maintaining a record of the person making the registration.

©Copyright 2008 by Michael Barnett. All rights reserved.  Unauthorized use, copying, or distribution without permission is prohibited.