• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 8, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO--Marketers should be making more of an effort to educate consumers about avoiding online fraud, said Fran Maier, executive director of TRUSTe, Tuesday at OMMA West.

"People are getting phished. They're getting scammed. They've had enough. We haven't empowered the consumer to really take control of their inbox, their computers," Maier said at a panel discussion about spam, adware, and other techniques that sometimes pit marketers against consumer representatives.

Maier suggested that marketers should reach out to consumers with a public service-type campaign instructing them to "Stop, look and listen," while online. She also said that even legitimate companies share some of the blame for online fraud by engaging in some of the same actions as fraudsters. For instance, she said, a large bank recently sent e-mails to consumers asking for account information--a strategy also used by phishers. "Why would you reinforce [that] behavior?" she asked.

Joining Maier on the panel was Alan Chappel of Chappel & Associates, Andrew Jedynak, senior vice president-general manager of WeatherBug, and Sean O'Neal, CMO of Datran Media. Mark Naples, managing partner of WIT Strategy, moderated.

Panelists also said that the industry needs to make sure consumers know the consequences of downloading software or conducting business online--preferably in simple English. "We can talk all we want about privacy policies," said Chappel. "Consumers aren't reading them."

Panelists differed on whether federal legislation designed to regulate adware and spyware would help or hinder legitimate online marketers. Maier said that one of the dangers of legislation was that laws directed at technologies quickly will become obsolete. "All of us know that technologies are going to evolve," she said. "If there's legislation, legislate against the bad behaviors."

But Jedynak said that one federal law would be preferable to "beehives of legislation in state after state after state."

O'Neal added that the legal system has limitations. "Even with legislation, how do you touch the offshore marketers? The guy in the basement?"