Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 (S.714) EMAIL

Subject: URGENT: Congress will legalize junk faxing unless you call TODAY!

You are getting this email because you (or someone you know) registered your email at www.junkfax.org.

I promised we would rarely contact you. Most of you have NEVER been contacted. But now we need your help URGENTLY because Congress plans on passing a bill TODAY that will render your fax machine useless. Congress wants to turn your fax machine into a printing press for advertisers. If you don't call BOTH your Senators RIGHT NOW to complain, they will think nobody minds, and this bill WILL PASS (see instructions below on how to make the call).

If you thought you were getting too much junk on your fax machine before, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Due to pressure from business groups and trade associations, they are about to LEGALIZE the sending of junk faxes!

That's right, they are going to do for junk faxes what they did recently to spam....make it LEGAL to do as long as the advertiser adds an "opt out" notice on it (with no time frame for compliance) and remembers to put the number to use to opt out (if they forget to do that, you can't opt out). And non-profits don't even have to put an opt out notice on their faxes. So it's a real bonanza for businesses. So now all these businesses can save major $$$ on their advertising costs since fax advertising is MUCH cheaper than direct mail (about 20 times cheaper!) because they are shifting all the costs to you!!! And you have no say in the matter and may be completely unable to opt out. Think of thousands of business letting you know about all the great deals on health insurance, mortgages, vacations, and stock tips.

Today it is ILLEGAL to send junk faxes and so only a few people do. But that's about to change. Congress is about to make sending junk faxes LEGAL so you'll be getting 10 to 100 times more unwanted advertising sent to your fax machine without your consent.

You can read my Senate testimony against this bill at yesterday's hearing:

At the hearing, they didn't dispute a single point I made! But it didn't change the bill one bit!!!! Even though they said I made good points (such as "no recipient wants to receive more junk faxes...ask them yourself!"), they didn't want to change so much as a comma.

And only two Senators (out of 100) were there to hear my testimony. The Q&A session lasted all of 5 minutes.

If you are as outraged at this as I am, you MUST CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY. Not tomorrow. Not in a week. RIGHT NOW. This bill is going for a vote TODAY. It could pass the Senate TODAY. You MUST ACT RIGHT NOW.

Do NOT assume someone else will do it and you don't have to. They count the TOTAL number of calls, not whether one person called. The more people call, the better. Get your friends to call too if they get junk faxes.

Step 1: Find your two Senators

go to:

http://www.senate.gov/index.htm

and select your state from the drop down.

Step 2: Call each one IMMEDIATELY and say the following

Do not wait. The vote could occur any day. Call each senator at the number listed. You only have to make TWO phone calls. A staff person will answer the phone. Say the following:

"My name is john smith and I am a constituent of Senator xxxxx. I live in san jose, California. I am calling to ask that Senator <your senators name> vote AGAINST S.714 (the Junk Fax bill) unless the "EBR exemption" is REMOVED ENTIRELY."

Note: one sentence is PLENTY. Most offices will just make a tally of whether you are FOR or AGAINST so if you stay on the line, you aren't doing anybody any favors.

Your Senator NEEDS to hear from you ASAP, before this goes to the floor. The business community is VERY well organized and has been lobbying heavily to be able to open up your fax machine as the next frontier in low-cost mass advertising. Because no one has called to object, your Senator thinks consumers want the ads from every business they've ever talk to so that's why they're adding it to the law.

Step 3: Sign our petition

We need 1,000 businesses to speak out against this bill. See Sign petition against the JFPA

Step 4: Mail or fax your Senators a letter

See pre-written letters below. Fill in the blanks and print and mail or customize as you see fit.