2007-02-17 06:36:13 PM TommyymmoT


just dont do that with official papers, i.e. bank records, bills, and so on...lol

Two words: mailbox claymore.

Pottery Barn Jack booted thugs

I love getting those envolopes with "Postage paid' on them. I fill them with all the pizza & credit card ads I got over the last week and drop that bad boy in the out going..

/ Smucks getting it a few days later are like 'WTF???"..LOL

Heard of a guy that wanted all that junk mail he could get as he had a roller machine and rolled all his mail up tight for the fireplace. Hasn't bought wood in yrs..
/ His mailman probably hates him having to hand carry all his firewood right to his door.

On the topic of spam: I never found it terribly irritating, until somewhere along the line someone sold my cryptic BlackBerry e-mail address. I don't care for junk bond prospecti in the middle of the night, thank you.

That's why you don't see too many of postage paid return mailers anymore. Also knew somebody who did that alot. He claimed he helping increase the Post Office's revenue.

Two buddies at work had a contest between each to see who could fill the other's (snail)mail box with the most crap. It got so bad, they couldn't tell anymore who was winning. I don't know if the mailing ever stopped, even after they gave up.

Writing "deceased" on the envelope may not work in most cases, as third class postage rates do not include return service unless the has specified that he wants it, which is fairly rare.

Oxford Don:

he actually got the check....that's funny.

Actually, in Men's Health one month (i've had a subscription for the past 2 or 3 years) they had a small article and they gave a url (sorry, don't have it, not gonna look it up, google it if you're interested) where you submit your name and address so that you won't receive junk mail.

There are actually laws against unsolicited mail, and if a company continues to send you junk mail even after you've registered your address there's a fine of like $10,000, but I can't think of anyone who would actually go to all that trouble just for one errant junk mail, instead of just throwing it in the trash.

However, if you've ever done any business with a business, then it's no longer junk mail, so they can keep sending you stuff.

You can also sign off on whether you want your name to be removed permanently or for only 5 years.

OxfordDon: Appropriate.

How did they find out who he was? Is your personal info really encoded on the business reply envelope somehow? I thought those were generic.

Form 1500??

Haireola: On the topic of spam: I never found it terribly irritating, until somewhere along the line someone sold my cryptic BlackBerry e-mail address. I don't care for junk bond prospecti in the middle of the night, thank you.

Especially since you're paying by the megabyte to recieve that spam...

/spammers must all DIAF
//soon

I just don't file forwarding address forms with the post office.... It is relatively easy to subscribe to the NCAD (Natnl. Change of Address Database)

Fark, how many ppl do you have to tell you new addy to?

Seriously Farkers, this does work (at least in the UK)

Register at this address (pops)

Over time your junk mail will decrease. The only junk I get now is from my own bank.

The only junk mail I seem to get is from car insurance companies. They always seem to say the same thing, "we're prepared to offer you a great rate because of your good driving record." Of course my driving record is great considering I haven't owned a vehicle since 1985 & haven't driven, nor had a driver's license in over 10 years due to my vision. If there was a garbage can right next to mail boxes, I'd be a little happier, but it's not that difficult for me to walk the short distance from the mail boxes to my apartment & place the junk mail in file 13.

That being said, I rarely get spam in my e-mail inbox. I use yahoo & 99.9% of spam ends up in the bulk mail box. All I have to do is click on "empty" & it's gone. On the rare occasions that spam lands in the inbox, I click on the tab indicating it as spam & it gets put into the bulk mail box & its reported to yahoo.

phillydrifter: There are actually laws against unsolicited mail, and if a company continues to send you junk mail even after you've registered your address


In the US, I only think that applies if you've filed a complaint against that particular mailer for sending unsolicited obscene mail.

On the plus side, SCotUS has determined that it is the sole discretion of the recipient whether or not it's obscene, so you can file against anything. Unfortunately, you have to file individually.

Yeah I just wrote "Return to Sender" on the AOL CDs and they stopped coming. 2 years ago. I love my grocery ads and can accept them as my only junkmail.

Note:

The post office LOVES bulk mail. It is far cheaper to process than first class mail and is very profitable.

Regular first class mail is a pain in the butt to them. Reading people's sloppy handwriting. They'd rather not deal with it at all.

Why do you think that the price of stamps keeps going up up up?..the post office would rather you use email and paperless billing systems so they can concentrate on the more profitable side of their business.

Direct Marketing Association are farkers.

Step 1: bombard people with junk mail.
Step 2: charge $1 to stop
Step 3: profit!

submitter: ow to stop junk mail from coming to your house.

I just put it all back into the outgoing mail box for the postal service to take care of..

/Collects mail at a central location.
//Still works if you take it from home to the local box on the corner.

What I've been doing lately is to take the contents of the plethora of unsolicited credit card offers, shredding their contents, stuffing the shreds in the prepaid return envelope and dropping it in the mail.

/feels good being a jackass sometimes
//ok, most of the time

The linked web page may stop SOME junk mail.

If you want to stop nearly ALL of your junk mail, talk to Jim Bulmash of Private Citizen.

Don't let the lame-o lack-of-web-design fool you.., this guy and his ability to clean out your snail-mailbox is for real. I subscribed to his service last year, and in about 4 months, it went from a nasty pile of $#@$ to maybe 1 piece of junk mail every 2 weeks.

I don't know that guy, I just am a happy customer. It's worth a shot.

the charging of 1$ is probably just to ensure that it's really the occupant. still, do i really trust that they'll remove my name? noone wanted the junk in the first place, so why should their vocal opposition matter (unless there is a legal downside for them, which i'm not aware of...)

I signed on with OPTOUT a few months ago. At first I didn't see much difference, but within the last few weeks the ratio of junk mail to me vs. my roommates junk mail is notable. easily 7 to 1.

Why in the hell should I have to pay (even just $1) to opt out of this crap?

fark you, DMA.

I used to stuff everything in the postage paid envelope and send it back. A couple of credit card companies sent me letters that I'd forgotten to sign the application. They included a new application which I sent back unsigned in the new postage paid envelope. I stopped doing this when I got the second new credit card from a company famous for their predatory lending practices. Now I just shred them.

I don't mind junk mail or junk email too much since it's easy enough to dispose of either without wasting time looking at them. What I really hate receiving are junk SMS messages and faxes. Both cost me money - not a good way to promote a farking product or service.

sezzme: don't know that guy, I just am a happy customer. It's worth a shot.

Did he make your penis larger and reduce your mortgage as well?

"I used to stuff everything in the postage paid envelope and send it back. A couple of credit card companies sent me letters that I'd forgotten to sign the application."
---

I do the same, but I either mark out or tear out my information. So far, nobody's followed up. I've also opted out, and am the DMA list, but I still get a ton of credit card offers, car loan offers, etc.

" Direct Marketing Association: Stops direct mail marketing from association companies for five years. There is a $1 fee"

Extortion, harassment, $65,000 in legal fees.

Seriously, are Business Reply Mail envelopes traceable or not if you don't put a return address? Because if they're not, there are so many fun things I'd do with them, just short of literally sending back a stool sample. I'd even do that, but it's probably considered a felony in most states.

If you're sending stuff back through the post office, make sure you put staples in the envelope.

Lots of staples.

I like to think it helps contribute to breaking their automated envelope openers.

ScottMpls, the DMA list doesn't work for the credit card offers. Each offer has opt-out info on the bottom. Other than insurance and stuff through your banks, it really does cut almost 100% of the offers out.

One way to get even with a company that won't stop junk mailing you:

Several years ago I worked in a virtual office for a Fortune 50 Co. I attended a required training program for managers and started getting mail from them. Then it was to me and "Accounts Payable" Then they added "Business Manager", etc., until I was getting 10 of the same damn things every time. It was a joke.

After mailing them and calling them several times to no avail, I got the name of the President of the company, went to Barnes and Noble and grabbed every magazine subscription card I could, focusing on gay and pron mags, went home, fixed a Martini or two, and filled out every one of them with this guy's name and company address.

About two months later, from a pay phone, I called his office, got his secretary, asked if he had been getting the magazines (and the bills) for the subscription. When she sounded shocked that I would know such a thing, I suggested the company change their junk mail practices and hung up.

God, that felt great. I moved about three months later and that ended the junk mail.

lmfao, just got a credit card offer from wamu.... shredded the application, stuffed it back into the enveople.... flattened the letter by placing it under my monitor... gonna send it back to em tommorow morning.

Yankees Team Gynecologist: OxfordDon: Appropriate.

How did they find out who he was? Is your personal info really encoded on the business reply envelope somehow? I thought those were generic.

Look closely at them. Some of them do have codes that I assume have identifying information. I always scratch those out.

Some Farker posted this site before:
http://www.optoutprescreen.com/
This takes care of a ton of unsolicited credit card offers.

SpamAssassin + FuzzyOCR + Botnet + A bunch of SARE rules + greylisting + zen.spamhaug.org... A bunch of crap to set up but cut my spam load from 50+ a day to one or two a week and has cut other users in my company from north of 300 per day to one or two a week as well versus our old SA 2.6 only filtering. The nice part is that it runs as a milter and will reject spam during the SMTP session so the remote end knows their message wasn't delivered. (I know, that's nothing really special but it's nice to not blackhole email)

Yes, greylisting does slow down legitimate email but only on the first exchange and we've accepted it as a trade off for the massive drop in spam. We're running about 92-94% spam right now, I've seen others report as high as 96% spam.

As for junk mail, I get more junk from American Express than anyone and only because I have cards with them. I've actually seen huge bins of it being discarded by the post office because it either couldn't be delivered or they didn't really care, not sure which.

I avoid spam by using my own mass-mailer and hit the spammers like a hooker who's run outta meth. That, and my mailbox-mounted taser, seems to abate the influx of junkmail.

One good way to keep it from coming in the first place: Avoid the temptation to utilize those little unmanned kiosks at fairs and such that proclaim "WIN A CAR!" and have little forms that ask for all your personal info. The chances you will win a car are slim to none, but the chances you will wind up in a targeted marketing database are pretty much 100%.

To get rid of spam-mail I created a 2nd e-mail addy, and whenever I'm in a situation where I absolutely have to give an e-mail addy I give that one. I do recieve the occasional spam, but overall my main account is free.

I had a friend once who kept signing me up for stupid crap. I'd get about 100 spam mailings a day. I eventually had to get rid of that e-mail address & I stopped talking to my friend. I found that she was still adding me onto mailing lists, & had actually been giving my e-mail out so she could get whatever cheap toy the soulless demons were offering.

I love using "return postage paid" envelopes to send the most obscene messages back that I can dream up.

I guess a lot of other people started doing this too, because they stopped printing their address on the return envelopes, forcing you to return the insert with your name in it in order to send the return envelope.

I get around this as going so far as to make up my own insert with their address on it, then mailing it back to them. I love telling them all the nasty things I hope happen to them, their wives, mothers, children, fathers...

Hey now! Don't forget that junk mail can save your life!

Speaking of spam email, has anybody else noticed that Gmail is the absolute worst for receiving spam? I get about 50 or 60 per week even though I hardly ever use my Gmail address. If I receive 5 in a week on my Hotmail account it's a lot.

Ah, hell, that didn't work. It's right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObjDnVdkJ8s

/Kids in the Hall goodness