www.obviously.com/junkmail -> www.obviously.com/junkmail/
Do-it-yourself: Stop junk mail, email and phone calls A free guide to reducing unwanted or intrusive advertising Junk mail may seem as inevitable as death and taxes, but with a little patience there are effective ways to tackle the problem. This guide provides clear, simple and proven reduction techniques. About 20 minutes investment now will clear the junk for between two and five years. General Techniques Your name, address, and buying habits are a commodity that is regularly sold & traded on the open market. These days organizations you deal with virtually all sell your name unless you specifically ask them to stop. Here are some general techniques: * Whenever you donate money, order a product or service, or fill out a warranty card, write in large letters, "Please do not sell my name or address". Most organizations will properly mark your name in the computer. They are not required in most situations - avoid sending them. If you fill one out at a football game, for example, expect to get a catalog of football merchandise within a few months. Keep track of which letter goes with which organization. Some guides recommend changing the spelling of your name, but this can lead to duplicate mailings. To stop specific types of unwanted paper mail The amount of paper junk mail sent each year in the USA is staggering -- some 4 million tons, nearly half of which is never opened. Even if you recycle there are still enormous environmental costs in terms of ink, energy to produce deliver and recycle the paper, recycling inefficiencies and loss of virgin forest to create the high quality glossy paper much junk mail uses. There is a lot you can do to reduce the cost to the environment and your own time: * First class mail: Cross out the address and bar code, circle the first class postage and write "refused: return to sender". Drop in any mail box, it will be returned to the sender. Bulk mail is the hardest to deal with because the USPS actively provides addresses, support and encouragement to mailers. However, if "address correction requested" is written on the label: circle "address correction requested" and treat like first class mail.
Direct Marketing Association estimates that listing with their mail preference service will stop 75% of all national mailings. They process 50,000 requests a month and requests are kept active for five years. If you fill out the post office change of address form, the DMA will track the new address (you'll get a few months of mailings to the new address before they catch up to you). It can take up to six months for your request to be fully processed. To stop mail addressed to former residents, or a former spouse If you rent you are probably familiar with receiving mail for a dozen or more former residents of your dwelling. Write "please activate the mail preference service", and include the name, address, and zip code. You must send individual postcards -- for some strange reason the DMA does not officially accept listings for former residents, and will ignore requests that don't appear to be from a single individual. Write "Moved, Left No Forwarding Address" as the new address. Sign your own name and write "Form filled in by current resident of the house, Your Name , agent for the above". Hand this form directly to your carrier, if possible, as your carrier must approve the form and see that it gets entered into the post service National Change of Address (NCOA) database.
To stop unwanted electronic mail ("SPAM") It is very hard to effectively combat junk electronic mail. It costs nothing to send out a few million email messages, so there is no disincentive for people to do so. Most 10 SPAM mailers forge the headers, email return address and sending machine name because they are sick of reading the thousands of inevitable complaints. The offers to remove your name from a list are generally untrue, and often result in your name getting added to yet another list. Many internet providers have policies against SPAM, and will take action. Unfortunately some providers either don't care or are SPAM-friendly. There are ways you can reduce exposure and complain: * Never never never reply to a SPAM email. The war of forgery has reached a level where the average person can't sort out who or where mail actually came from. If you want to complain, use the services of a system like 11 SpamCop to process the mail. If it relates to selling stocks, send to the 13 Securities and Exchange Commission. Remove the "mailto" and force people to manually enter the email address. You can use an obviously false return address on postings: most news programs let you set this to whatever you want. Include your real email address (coded as above) in body of the message. Examples of what marketers know about you Here is a clip from a mailing list compiler's web page showing address counts for a just a few of many types of information they collect on all Americans. The reputable firms will remove your name based on a request made to the DMA (see above). County Zip Pet Owners Diet Conscious Investors MailOrder Buyers Travelers ALAMEDA 94705 188 119 202 338 206 Sports Goers Do-It- Yourselfers Collector Fundraising Contributor Computer Owners SweepStakes Entrants Grand Parents 198 122 30 308 162 209 396 ^1 The Direct Marketing Association suggests "reusing" your unwanted junk mail, by giving it to schools and libraries. This self- serving suggestion is worth somewhat less than you paid for it. Contents Copyright 1998 Evergreen Industries & 20 NextBus Transit Information Systems. Keywords: consumer recycling, home recycling, about recycling, environmental Keywords: guide & free tips on stopping junk mail, reducing unwanted marketing bulk mail, how to get less mail, how to stop junk mail.
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