Registry to Get Deceased Off Marketers List

The nation’s largest direct marketing group set up a registry Thursday to remove dead people from its telemarketing, e-mail and direct mail lists -- for $1.

The Direct Marketing Assn., which has more than 5,200 members in the United States and 44 other countries, said its Deceased Do-Not-Contact list was designed to help families dealing with the loss of a loved one.

“The DMA recognizes how emotionally and logistically difficult the process of handling someone’s final affairs can be,” said Pat Kachura, the group’s senior vice president for ethics and consumer affairs.

The group said the $1 fee was for credit card verification and was designed to prevent fraud.

The idea follows the government’s popular Do Not Call list, which allows consumers to sign up online and imposes fines on telemarketers when they call those consumers. The list, set up in 2003, has more than 97 million numbers.

The marketing group said it would also provide its list of the deceased to companies that were not members of the organization.