Junk Mail

 For requests from charitable contributions to which you are not interested in contributing, open the envelope, retain the return envelope, put a message on your address label that says "Please remove my name from your mailing list" and insert into the postage-paid envelope. *note: a postage paid envelope costs the returnee .71 cents to get back (they pay attention) If enough of us returned these postage paid envelopes it would become VERY expensive for companies and organizations to send us unsolicited offerings. This really works great for all those credit card offers.

 For national solicitations Send a request to remove your name (including all forms and spellings) and address to Mail Preference Service, c/o Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735-9008. Request they remove your name from all mailing lists maintained by their members. Frequently these lists have our names in dozens of different illiterations. You must send to them all the forms of your name that your mail comes in (don't forget "resident") for them to remove them all.

But that leaves us still vulnerable to the huge numbers of local direct mailers. When you receive one of these simply attach the mailing label portion to a postcard with the note asking to be removed and mail it to the return address on the printed piece (some even have telephone numbers printed there - you can call).

 But most important:

Never purchase anything as a result of an unsolicited mailing. A 1% return on any mail campaign is considered successful. Therefore, if you purchase an item via your mailbox, 99 other people have to throw it away, and your purchase will encourage still more mailings. I am convinced that there is a direct correlation between the decline of the number of newspapers and the rise in junk mail in our society. Think about it. Advertisers found they could reach us better and more directly through our mailboxes than through advertising in our local newspapers.

If you do send checks to charities, subscribe to magazines or order from catalogs, always indicate that you do not want your name added to any mailing lists. Tell the charities to whom you contribute, "This is my annual contribution. I do not wish to receive any further mailings this year. Do not give my name to any other mailing list. If you feel you cannot honor this request, please return this check".

 As to moving: I am afraid that won't help. Guess what? if you fill in one of those "change of address" cards at the Post Office they sell that information right back to the junk mail sellers and you are right back on the treadmill again.

Become Proactive, Proactive

In my business I see what chaos junk mail creates in people's lives, to say nothing of the incredible waste to our environment. So I have made it my ambition to teach as many people as possible the really effective ways to empty their mailboxes through my classes and seminars.

Visit the comprehensive website on all aspects of personal privacy issues:  JunkBusters

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Copywrited August 1999 Karla Jones