Are You Drowning in Junk Mail? Start Here

This is a round-up of my odyssey of trying to save an old woman (and my mailbox) from junk mail. This is the quick easy version if you want to see the fun, and the thought process that went into this list, read the rest of the blog. I will be updating this page as I get better at stopping junk mail.

Before I started, I had to set up some rules for myself. This very easily could have become a money pit with me yelling at people every day. Whenever I had the urge to start screaming at people or start flinging junk mail across the room, out of frustration, I just went back to this list.

Step 1. I had to take a scorched earth strategy when attacking the junk mail. When you are getting 20+ pieces of junk mail a day, you just need to make it stop.

Box o' Junk Mail, 134 pieces

I recommend tossing all the mail in a big box and sorting through it once a week. That way you can really see who is sending the most stuff, and focus on them. Open everything, you will be getting free money, return address labels, stamps, calendars and, note pads. A lot of the cost of stopping the junk mail will be off set by these freebies.

You need to put up a shield of protection over your mailbox:

  • Sign up for DMAChoice this will stop everything that you or your elderly person has never given money to, either bought a product or given a donation. The updated list is sent out 4 times a year: January, April, July, and October. It will take 6 to 8 weeks after the the next update to see a difference in your mailbox. (Some people have interpreted this as my saying not to do this step. This is the number #1 thing you can do to stop junk mail. 99% of the people who find this blog will only need to do this and use PaperKarma. (Affiliate link) The problems come when you are trying to clean up 50+ years of junk mail mail like I am.)
  • If you are the legal guardian, or have Power of Attorney for a loved one use the Do Not Contact for Caretaker’s Registration (it has the same effect as the regular DMAChoice page)
  • You can also sign up for directmail.com‘s National Do Not Mail List. It is independent from DMAChoice.
  • Stop credit card offers: Opt-Out Pre-Screen or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) They are going to ask you for your Social Security Number. It is OK, that is the way the credit bureaus ID you.
  • Telemarketer InfoCision call them at (330) 668-1400 or email them at infocis@infocision.com. They are called a telemarketer but they are so much more. They also do mailing list management for their clients. If you get a lot of phone calls from charities, more that likely it is these guys. Even if phone calls aren’t a problem contact them anyway.
  • If you are receiving mail for a person who has passed away, I have a post about stopping mail for a deceased person.

Tell your bank to stop sharing your personal data

This next group are all data brokers. They turn your life into data points that are sold to direct marketers:

Submit a California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Opt-Out Request with each credit bureau. This won’t stop junk mail for credit card offers. It stops them from selling your information to 3rd parties.

If you want to go to the next level with opting out of data brokers and other data mining sites there is a lot more you can do.

Step 2. You have now put up a strong shield around your mailbox. It is time to wait. It may take up to 3 months, to see a difference in your mailbox. While you are waiting there are somethings you can do:

Sign up for Catalog Choice or PaperKarma (Affiliate link. Use coupon code DJM30 to get 30% off a subscription to PaperKarma) You must enter every group individually to opt out. I found PaperKarma to be more effective than Catalog Choice.

Clean up your everyday junk mail:

Red Plum, Penny Saver, and Valpak, The Unholy 3

Publishers Clearing House

St. Joseph's Indian School 2014 Christmas Appeal

Opt-out of St. Joseph’s Indian School saintjosephs@stjo.org. Their fundraiser will sell you out to anyone with a checkbook.

stuffed envelope

Junk Mail Revenge: Make them pay for wasting your time.

Step 3. Three months have passed, you can see a difference in the junk mail you get, but it is still to much. It is time to escalate your strategy.

Directly contact the company who is sending you stuff. That is a phone call and an email on the same day. I found calling to be way more effective than email. I also didn’t leave a message, unless there was an option in the phone tree for opting out of their mailing list.

Find out who their direct marketing firm is. The direct marketing firms that were sending the most stuff were American Target Advertising, HSP Direct, Base Connect, Response Unlimited.

How to research the people who make the junk mail.

If you didn’t get a reply from either the phone call or the email it is time to go to the next level. Contact the Ethics Board at the DMA and fill out an Ethics Complaint form. They will send a stern letter to the offender. My guide to filling out a DMA Ethics Complaint. You should also contact your state’s attorney general and file a complaint with them. The AG will also send a letter to the junk mailer asking them to stop. You need to leave a paper trail with as many people as possible. What they are doing is harassment. If enough people file complaints the “charity” and everyone they work with will get into trouble.

Fraud letter and USPS form 1500

Step 4. This is the nuclear option. This one takes more time and a little money, and is best used on the worst scammy junk mail you get. Declare it porn. Fill out the Post office’s Prohibitory Order Against Sender (USPS form 1500). This will make it stop in 30 days. USPS form 1500 (PDF) also called a  Prohibitory Order. This is an excellent walk through of the process from Knowmore.org (the web site seems to be down so I am linking to the Wayback Machine version) They must be selling you something in the mailpiece. Asking for $20 to get $10 million counts, and it works on all sweepstakes. It does not work on charities 501(c)(3) or Political Action Committees 501(c)(4). It does not work on international mail. Only on mail that comes from the US. Lucky for you that as you stop the US scams, the international scams also stop.

Update: Here is my How to guide to filling out Prohibitory Order Against Sender (USPS form 1500).

This will not stop the junk mail but it will leave a paper trail for the next person:

If this whole process has not soured you on donating to charities and political causes please read my guide on How to be a More Effective Charitable Donor. I will sum it up for you: If you ask them not to share your information and they do, stop sending them money. Charities need to learn that the money they make from selling out their donors will cost them the donor’s loyalty, trust, and most importantly their money.

139 thoughts on “Are You Drowning in Junk Mail? Start Here”

  1. If this works I’m for using it. I get so much crap mail I loose a half a day opening it and my shredder isn’t big enough to eat it if it’s not opened and my name taken out thanks for the information. I’ll let all my friends know

    Like

    Reply

    • I stopped all junk snail mail coming to my home way back in the 1980s. I am adverse to junk mail for many reasons, including environmental, political, and privacy/identity theft reasons. I moved into a smaller home three years ago, and suddenly the junk mail began to flow like water. I was stunned and appalled. I could not figure out how the junk mailers obtained my name and address after all of these years. I did not submit a change of address to the post office, which is how many junk mailers obtain names and addresses. I notified every friend, loved one, and business personally. I found out the city water department used to share names and addresses with marketers, but they assured me that had been stopped years ago.

      Well, I went to war against them. I contacted the Direct Marketing Association, and I contacted each junk mailer personally to tell them I was saving their junk mail in a big bag in my closet and writing on each piece of mail the date it appeared in my post box. I asked them to remove my name and address completely from their data base and to not share my name and/or address with anyone else. I told them I would give them up to eight weeks to stop sending me junk mail, and if they continued to do so, I would proceed sequentially if the first step did not resolve the matter after I had verbally requested not to be contacted ever again:

      1. File complaints against them with the BBB in my area and the BBB in their area;

      2. File a complaint with my state’s Attorney General’s Office for Consumer Complaints; and, if all else failed,

      3. File a lawsuit against them for harassment and any other cause of action I could think of.

      I also advised them that if they are incorporated, and most are incorporated, they would have no choice whatsoever but to hire an attorney to represent them as no one including board members/officers, etc., may represent a corporation in court. I advised them that I would generate enough paperwork to keep their lawyer as busy as possible, and I would file for as many motion hearings possible to make sure their lawyer had to travel to and from court as many times as possible. I advised I would also ask for a jury trial and show the jurors and the court the enormous stack of dated junk mail I had received from them. I would then enter into evidence the BBB complaints and the complaint filed with the Attorney General’s Office. I advised I would ask for damages for stress, invasion of privacy, and anything else I could think of asking to be awarded. Finally, I asked them to seriously consider how many hours of an attorney’s time it would take at $300 or more per hour to represent their company in court on a matter which no one would sympathise with them after seeing my stack of evidence.

      Some of the junk mailers desisted immediately. Others persisted through steps one and two above, and one persisted all the way up to my asking the court for the paperwork to file a claim for harassment—Charter Cable contacted me almost every week for over a year. Eventually, I got rid of Charter, too. Later, I discovered that most of the junk mailers got my name and address from RedPlum, the company that sends out the grocery store circulars each week. They share your name and address with anyone and everyone. I got rid of RedPlum, too.

      Now, I have an entirely new problem—junk email from Republican PACS. Politically, I am to the left of the Democrats, so why any Republican would think he could obtain a donation or a vote from me is beyond me to understand.

      The bottom line is I would not contact anyone who did not want to be in contact with me. Why these people/companies/PACS think they have some sort of God given right to contact me just because I have a pulse and a post box is beyond me, especially after I politely tell them the first time that I do not want them to contact me ever again whether their junk mail is addressed to me, or to “our friends at,” “resident,” “occupant,” or any other name they might think up.

      I recall many years ago I tried to stop a certain retailer based out of Atlanta from sending me catalogs. I repeatedly telephoned them and even wrote a letter to them, but he catalogs and flyers kept coming. One day I telephoned one of their stores near my home and spoke to the manager. I told him I had been trying for months to stop the company from sending junk mail to my home, but they continued to do so. I said I was sick and tired of it, and I intended to put an end to it once and for all. Therefore, if I continued to receive junk mail from them after speaking to him, I would come to his store at the busiest time of day and the busiest day of the week and cause such a loud, ugly scene in front of his customers that the only way he could get rid of me would be to telephone the police. Guess what? All of the “it takes up to eight weeks for your information to removed from the computer” claptrap collapsed, and someone went in immediately and removed my name and address—which is what they should have done from the start.

      Sometimes, one has to be creative in dealing with junk mailers. They have to FEEL how much you despise them.

      Like

      Reply

      • All the problems you had are why I went above their heads and contacted their telemarketers and direct mail marketers.

        Email spam is the new frontier. It costs so little to send, so the budget that used to go to the printers and the post office goes into more email addresses. There are ways to opt-out of the email. But they bury it so deep in their websites it is almost impossible to find.

        I hope I gave you some new tools for the next time you want to go toe to toe with a junk mailer.

        Like

  2. THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!!
    My parents and I have been working with my elderly grandmother who has dementia, to try and get her to stop sending $$ to these companies. Now we have a way of doing something! We have had her mail switched to go to us and I will be starting this TODAY!
    Thanks so much!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. There are some I want to continue supporting. Then new ones come in. Is there an organization that separates the illegal/phoney ones from the legitimate ones?

    Like

    Reply

  5. You can tell the groups you like to not sell your information. You can also look up almost any charity at Charity Navigator http://www.charitynavigator.org/. You want to see things like over 75% of budget going to programs, and fundraising less than 25% of budget. Instead of giving a little to a lot of charities give a lot to a select few. Your dollars will make more impact for your favorite causes. http://freakonomics.com/2012/12/06/charitable-giving-why-fewer-is-more/

    Like

    Reply

  6. This may be the ultimate scorched earth, but a friend once glued pennies all over both sides of several pieces of paper and mailed back in a prepaid envelope. a couple dollars worth of pennies cost over $48 for them to receive. They finally stopped mailing once they received that letter.

    Like

    Reply

  8. This is terrific advice… Thanks!
    Last year, we moved to a new home in a different town. Since then, both my wife and I have been receiving copies of magazines (not porn!) that we never ordered. (Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone). We get them monthly, as if we had subscribed. We have no idea how we started getting them. Mostly, they go directly into the recycle bin. The actual “scam-ish” part started happening at the beginning of this year: We started getting notices that it was time to “renew our subscriptions.” Each magazine listed above has individually sent at least one notice/offer to renew. These notices go into the recycle bin, along with the mags.

    In the grand scheme of things, this nuisance is fairly low on the scale. However, it would be great to be able to stop the flow of dead trees. Any ideas what’s going on, and how to stop it?

    Thanks again!

    Like

    Reply

  9. Sign up for DMA Choice first, and you can block specific magazines. Also you can call each magazine individually. I can’t find the information right now, but there is a company that does predatory selling of magazine subscriptions. It is possible you got on their radar somehow. I hope that helps 🙂

    And thanks everyone for stopping by! It is good to see lots of people clicking through on DMA Choice and form 1500. While you are signing yourself up, sign up your parents and grandparents too. The best way to stop junk mail is to not let it get started in the first place.

    Like

    Reply

  11. Awesome ideas. Love the mail revenge part! Adding pennies to weigh it down! Woohoo!

    It’s hard to escape the junk mail list if you ever buy a house. We get lots of junkmail with our exact mortgage amount on it. It keeps our shredder busy.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. First stop: mailbox
    Second stop: recycle bin, where everything not private or actionable gets dumped
    Third stop: Computer, to pay bills
    Fourth stop: Shredder
    Fifth stop: filing cabinet.
    Total elapsed time: <5 minutes.

    Like

    Reply

    • Oh Mr. Snape if it was only that easy. When you get 20+ pieces in a day it takes more than 5 minuets to look through the mail. Also you are in fine mental health. How long it would take you if you had lost your short term memory? Take note of all the 2 in 1 day mail pieces she gets. She would send a check for both of them, because she forgot she just did it a few minuets ago.

      Like

      Reply

      • My apologies – I didn’t mean to minimize the difficulty or trauma associated with your or your mother’s task. My wife is a hoarder, and it’s imperative that I’m the person to do this, else it goes into the infinite retention pile.

        Like

      • Now that I have seen first hand the effect of massive amounts of junk mail can have on a house, I can see how a person who is a hoarder anyway can have the whole house spin out of control in a short time. Good luck to you and your wife.

        Like

  14. For credit-related and insurance offers, go to optoutprescreen.com. Obviously our credit bureaus are selling addresses of those with good credit. It was the best thing I ever did and I feel more secure about not receiving multiple pre-approved credit card offers every single day.

    Like

    Reply

  15. Be careful with the stuffing the Postage Paid envelopes. The receiving company can, and will, refuse delivery of obviously stupidly-stuffed envelopes. Then they don’t have to pay any money for the postage at all.
    **The post office will have to eat the cost of that, which we all have to pay for in the end.**
    It is best to simply place the actual thing they want returned to them with your address but no other information and a big STOP SENDING ME MAIL or EVERY THING YOU MAIL ME WILL BE RETURNED IN ONE OF THESE ENVELOPES COSTING YOU MONEY. Something like that.

    Like

    Reply

    • Stuffing the envelopes will cost them money (unless they are obvious enough to be refused), but writing “Take Me Off Your Mailing List” will not work for most of the large operators. This is because they use mail sorting and data processing contractors that only get paid for the data entry/check processing – they just toss any envelope that does not have an application and/or check. [I got this info from someone who worked for one of these data processing companies as a temp job.]

      Post Office Domestic Mail Manual code 8.4.6, “BRM may not be used for any purpose other than that intended by the permit holder, even when postage is affixed. In cases where a BRM card or letter is used improperly as a label, the USPS treats the item as waste.”

      ——–
      Why waste pennies??? A friend saved scrap sheet metal and cut it into envelope sized pieces.
      ——-

      One thing I find irritating is when a legitimate notice or bill is put in an envelope that looks like junk mail – even worse is when it also has ads in the envelope.

      Like

      Reply

      • I thought when They said “label” they meant tapping a prepaid envelope to a box. Putting stuff in an envelope is not using it as a label. I realize that sending back the prepaid envelopes is the least effective technique I use. But it is good therapy at the end of the week to mix up all the junk mail and send it back. It has worked on smaller charities that have not farmed out the fundraising operations.

        Like

      • I think that is to “camouflage” any appearance of holding something of value. It’s for your benefit.
        I don’t think we should receive ANY mail we don’t want. It IS an intrusion of our privacy. I think we need a federal law that reads IF the receiver of such informs the sender to remove your name/address from their mailing lists, and they do not do so, the sender should hear from the Post Office and threatened with a big fine!

        Like

  16. Great summary of how to deal with this problem. And the comments add more info.
    I’ve done pretty much all of this over the last 7 years. I didn’t have a particularly horrible problem, but I moved to a house that had had 4 prior owners in 4 years, so I got their junk, then my mom died and I had her address forwarded to me, so I could take care of her stuff, and I got her junk.
    At long last, I get maybe 1 junk piece a month, at worst. Yep, you read that right.
    It’s definitely a triage situation – the easy stuff goes away quickly, and the worst of the worst are very few in number.
    For most legitimate businesses, a simple email through their website usually works. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries. One pro trick, though, after being ignored, is to go to the top. Doing a websearch on “@companyname.com” for example, will usually yield the email format the company uses, e.g., “j.jones@companyname.com”. Then it’s not hard to identify the higher-ups’ (president, VPs, etc.) names, and just blast them with the info that customer service is ignoring your simple request. I’ve gotten a couple of chagrined emails from presidents/etc. and the problem has always been promptly taken care of after that.
    Re Prohibitory orders. The “porn” designation is really a legacy of the original law, dating back to 1970, I believe. Court decisions have extended the right to refuse mailings that offer any product or service for sale. (So you can’t PO charity junk-mail unless there’s some consideration offered in return.) The USPS has just never bothered to change the forms. POs really work – I’ve done 6 or 7, and have never seen them violated.
    One problem on the horizon, though, is a newish USPS program: EDDM or Every Door Direct Mail. It lets businesses blast all addresses on letter carriers’ routes, without needing to address them individually. You’ll see the “EDDM” mentioned in the upper-right corner where a stamp would be. Such pieces are addressed to “Occupant” or something like that, so there’s no way to opt-out that I know of. At best, you can just complain to the company and tell them you’ll boycott them, I guess. I’ve heard rumors that an opt-out program may be in the works.
    In short, a little work, and a little patience, can stop almost all junk mail.

    Like

    Reply

  17. Forty four years ago my ex-husband took a “personality assessment” quiz from an erstwhile cult that now calls itself a religion. I have been getting mail and magazines from this group ever since. I wrote them and explained that he was no longer at my address, but they ignored me. I get junk mail from them nearly every day, even 3-4 items a day. Has anyone ever managed to get out from under a group like this one?

    Like

    Reply

    • Scientology is notorious for having a zombie mailing list. One of the ways they count members is by how many people are on it’s mailing list. Even though it is filled with people like your ex-husband, who only had one interaction with them. You need to fill out a Prohibitory Order (USPS Form 1500) for one piece of mail. Try to pick one where they are directly selling something, a book, a course package, a trip on the Freewinds boat. That will make it stop in 30 days. No one messes with the USPS, not even Scientology.

      Like

      Reply

    • Good find. The link on Mr. Riley’s Blog is apart of the DMA site, they have a link on the home page. I couldn’t long in, but hopefully others can.
      Zairmail and EDDM is a type of direct mail that I haven’t begun to deal with yet. I love the fact that the info I always want is at the bottom of the page in white type.
      Good luck with your dad!

      Like

      Reply

  19. Pingback: How to remove yourself from scammer's contact lists

  21. Thank you for this information. I am so sick of these companies sending solicitations to my elder aunt who has dementia. She is so vulnerable to this crap. But with this information and my Power of Attorney, I’m hoping I can trim down some of the mail.

    Like

    Reply

  22. Will filling out the 1500 form eventually get me off all the scammers lists? I’m really frustrated because I went through all of the above steps DMAchoice.org do not call list, optoutprescreen.com. I even contacted all the major data brokers. Epsilon (formerly Abacus) InfoUSA, dun and bradstreet, atozdatabase, etc to have our info removed. I virtually had no junk mail whatsoever coming to our address for almost the past year, just regular mail. This is why I am dumbfounded now, because just in the last 2 weeks, all of a sudden I am starting to get scam offers in the mail everyday. I haven’t responded or ordered anything, so I’m baffled as to how they got my info and where they got it. I received 1 offered for a free trip, if I pay a fee. The next day, it was one that told me to send $100 to the person in the letter. I got another one for government grants, if I send them anywhere from $49.99 to $249.99. Would these qualify under the 1500 form?

    Also, how did they get my info if I haven’t been on any mailing list for over a year now.

    Any advice or thoughts?

    Like

    Reply

    • “Will filling out the 1500 form eventually get me off all the scammers lists”

      Yes, you will get kicked of the list of the person who sent you something and hopefully a master mailing list also.

      From your description it sounds like they all qualify. They must have return addresses in the USA.

      I wish I knew how they picked who to send junk mail to. Phonebooks? Voter rolls? They are using a big general list to find people.

      Like

      Reply

  23. Just found your blog last week after spending over 2 months sending mail back to multiple political organizations my elderly mother has gotten herself drowning in. Fascinated by what I have read and realize my attempts will mostly be ignored. Working on your approach as I write. I have a couple I wonder if you have experience with: David Bossie, “Citizens United” for a Secure America, Committee to Investigate the Obama White House, etc; He also uses different PO Boxes for each “project”. A new one today, Clarice Navarro, Hispanic Republican Fund, a project of VIGOP (Virgin Islands GOP??) The envelopes look similar to the ones from Base Direct.

    Like

    Reply

  25. My FiL who is 88, receives about 8-15 pieces of mail a day. In August, 2014 we did a temporary change of address to weed out the bulk mail and focus on the 1st class (they’re the ones that send postage paid return envelopes and cash). The post office said a lot of the bulk mailing would stop since the address was no longer valid. The mail went down to 3-8 a day and after an aggressive letter writing campaign I got it down to 1-3 a week. We just transferred his mail back and had hoped the junk mail would have lessened, but no. This week I’ve opted out by email, website, telephone, web connect, and paper Karma, 43 letters not including double mailings! Many of the organizations are very helpful and confirm by email the removal of his name. A lot, never confirm and after several months of still getting their letters I’ve become quite abrasive when dealing with them.
    This Blog has been by far the most valuable tool in my epic battle on the donation request front. I search it daily for opt out links and information. Thank you for all the help!

    Like

    Reply

    • I am glad you are using the blog the way I intended. When they ignore you, that is when you should start to escalate. Go over their heads, and find their direct marketing firm. Do not hesitate tattling on them to the DMA.

      If you want to out the real nasties that won’t stop sending you stuff, list them here.

      Like

      Reply

      • So far the worst offenders are:
        The RNC, Sarah PAC, and the American Conservative Union, though the American Republican Congressional Committee is running a close second. I left for a week vacation and came back to a grocery bag full of mail. To date, I have an excell spreadsheet of 71 organizations with only 21 confiming removal. A quick look in the bag this morning showed very few duplicates so my list is about to grow. On the positive side Base Connect, DMA Choice, and Response Unlimited have confirmed my Opt Out requests. Again, Thank You!!

        Like

      • To any direct marketing people who stumble on this blog: That rate of response is dreadful. It is shameful that this man is working as hard as he is to stop junk mail, and everyone is ignoring him. All of you should be ashamed your fellow direct mail marketers, and yourselves for letting these people exist in your field.

        Mike, in 3 months it should get better. Also contact InfoCision. They seem to have their fingers in every pie.

        Like

  26. darthjenni, Thanks. I added InfoCision to my spreadsheet this morning. Started digging in at 6:30 am and just finished 2:00 pm. I have added 34 new recipients to my list, though at least that many were from people I have contacted in the past 30 days. All have been added to Paper Karma (great app), 13 emailed, 8 phone calls, 12 on line opt out’s, and several leading to the same parent organizations (American Service Council, Citizens Assembly, etc) and one pending a DMA request. The good news, 4 have responded today removing my FiL from their list.
    Another 3 months and I’ll pull my greying hair out! I started the online campaign in October.
    The hardest part has been to get my FiL to stop opening and reading them. I told him ALL the “Urgent”, “Immediate Attention”, and “Reply Deadline” stamps are designed to get him to open and contribute without puting it off, and were pre-programmed to be mailed 10 weeks ago! It took 10 WEEKS for them to give him a 24 hour response deadline!! Many older people have the means and desire to help and be involved. For many, it’s their only way to be involved. It’s a shame these marketing firms inundate their mailboxes to a point no one receives contributions.

    Like

    Reply

  27. Dear darthjenni, I can’t thank you enough for all of your information. I’ve been battling this since early last November on behalf of my mom, who has early alzheimer’s. I was under the mistaken belief that if you notified a company in writing that they had to stop sending junk/solicitations. Some do, but many don’t, so I reported the repeat offenders to the Postal Inspector. He wrote back but was no help. I’ve read your blog from start to finish and for the first time I feel like I might actually get somewhere. My biggest repeat offenders are the political causes and politicians (namely the Senior’s Trust, the Safe Borders Coalition, and US Freedom Fund – all of which have the same PO Box in DC), followed by veterans groups, then the various charities. So far I’ve sent 89 letters to different causes, 165 if you count repeats. I’ve sent 3 with glitter in to the most persistent ones. I’m also calling all the telemarketers I find in her caller ID. I’m up to 42 of those. That biggest offender is the Tea Party and NRA. I wrote a letter directly to the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre and was told when I called 10 days later that she was off the list. I also signed up for Catalog Choice and Paperkarma. My mom doesn’t understand the problem and hasn’t been cooperative. I’m considering the locked mailbox idea. Your site has been a Godsend. Thank-you

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  28. My FiL and MiL passed Dec/Jan respectively. Had mail fwd’d to our address for bill’s etc. Lots of BBM (I’m retired Postal). Did the DMA thing, awaitng results. Have called several mailers, with a 6-8 weeks stop time. We’ll see.
    Like the escalation tactics. I realize that all this is a P.I.T.A., but P.O. makes a lot of money on BBM. Largest revenue maker, as people don’t write as much anymore and first class postage is WAY down. All the pennies or metal scraps in an envelope, or anything not flat like paper, only tear up the mail processing machines I used to maintain. Stuff the envelope to no more then 1/4 inch. Will go through the machine, but costs the receiver as they pay by weight AND piece. Make sure it’s still flexible to go around an 18 inch “bull-wheel”. Destroying the barcode, at the bottom right or the “FIM” code to the left of where the stamp goes forces the P.O. to have to perform additional steps to process the mail and costs the receiver additional postage.

    Like

    Reply

    • Thank you for confirming the rummers I found about envelope stuffing. It was never my intention to break the sorting machines, but to punish the junk mail sender with postal fees.

      Like

      Reply

  29. Thank you for all your research and information. I have been trying to cut back on the amount of mail my parents get….given they are both in their 80’s and not well. I got a response back yesterday from Epsilon (privacy@epsilon.com) which I thought was amazing. They said due to privacy concerns, they wanted to see my power of attorney or else hear from my parents directly (they would if they could!). Every other company (at least the few who responded to me) was helpful and removed their address without complaint or comment. Do I really need to send a power of attorney to Epsilon? I think they are nuts. And yes, I did do go the DMA site and do the power of attorney thing there….but I am not going to start sending legal documnents to a direct mail company just to stop junk mail!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • If you are super serious about stopping the junk mail do it. I agree with you that Epsilon’s request is over the top. They will sell your data to anyone with enough $$$. But if you want to make it stop you have to jump through a bunch of hoops.

      Like

      Reply

    • Epsilon is one of the worst offenders. I got the same ludicrous response to a request I made. I did send POA, certified mail. They are just trying to stall you.

      Like

      Reply

  30. My father has been in a nursing home now for 4 months. He had 20 stacks of junk mail, each at least a foot high, on his floor waiting to be opened. Since I have been going through his mail, I have registered him under the dma caregivers, called all that I can find phone numbers for, sent back postage paid envelopes stating to remove his name, and hand written letters to abou30 others-all since Apr 14–353 places total so far! The amount reduced so far is tremendous-however now he is getting many NEW solicitations from political campaigns and I can’t find phone numbers for most of them. What can be done about these? Thanks for any help! D.juday.

    Like

    Reply

    • I would go to the official campaign website first, and look for a Contact page. They should have an email address or web mail form to fill out. If you can’t find contact info on their website try looking on Balltpedia Look for the “Campaign Manager” they all have Twitter accounts Tweet @ them that you want off the mailing list. After that you have to start combing through FEC and IRS documents. A normal person should not have to do all that. Who is bugging you? I will get you their info.

      Like

      Reply

  31. I typically go straight for the prohibitory order. It works well, but often the first order is ignored and you need to follow up with a second, enforcement order. This works for everyone except for Cox, in my experience. I would like to start a kickstarter campaign to hire a lawyer to compel the postal service to enforce my order against Cox, if anyone has a suggestion. In the interim, one might suggest just writing “return to sender” on such mailings and putting them in a postal box. I imagine that if thousands of people started doing this, someone would be forced to find a better solution. Come to think of it, this might be a good approach to all junk mail….If the USPS business model requires chopping down forests to make junk mail that we have to pay to recycle or landfill, then their business model needs to fail. Another thing I like to do is always mail back empty the postage pre-paid envelopes that credit card companies, etc., send you. They pay the postage but get nothing in return. Or you can insert pro-union propaganda into those envelopes and inspire some expensive action among those who must open them.

    Like

    Reply

    • Return to Sender does nothing. They will just toss it in the trash. In the UK they have the same problem with Virgin Mobil. People have started “forwarding” the junk mail to Richard Branson’s house. You could blackout your address, put MOVED on it with the address of the Cox executive of your choice. Don’t drop it in your local mailbox. You don’t want all of your mail to be redirected.

      Like

      Reply

  32. Find out if they have a Facebook page. I have gotten results from people who stiffed many others by posting a negative comment on their FB pages. It seems no one wants to be outed for bad behavior on Facebook! Also, if you have your own FB account, post it on your own wall, and mention this on the comment you put on their page. It works for me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I think I may try that. I’ve gotten nowhere directly contacting the GOP. I just don’t feel like having their stuff show up in MY feed. Maybe I’ll send it through my dad’s FB page; he never goes on there!

      Like

      Reply

    • That is another good idea. I just found SealPac on facebook and messaged them on how to get my parents off their list. I got a response and sent them their address. If you go to their website, it doesn’t seem to give a way to contact them without sending money or getting “more information.” I don’t want more information. I want it to stop. Let’s see if it really works. I am utterly beyond frustrated with these political and charitable groups targeting seniors. My parents’ have good hearts. But they are not well and there is no money.

      Like

      Reply

      • The only time I ordered a product, paid for it, and heard nothing further, I went to a site called “Complaints Board” to check up on them. I discovered that the company had “stiffed” quite a few other customers, several for large sums. That’s when I got angry! After my phone calls and emails were ignored, my threatening to go to Facebook got prompt action! I’ve used this threat successfully to get action several times now with different organizations. So far, so good!

        Like

    • Public shaming is an excellent way to get their attention. There is a way to “like” the offender’s page, but then “unfollow” their feed of garbage. When you complain about them on your Facebook page type the “@” symbol and start typing their name. If they have a Facebook page it should be pulled up. Click on the name in the box. It will link the name to the Facebook page. The people who run the page will get an alert that you are talking about them. If they care about good PR they will contact you.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  33. Does anyone know how to stop the Schaeffer Cox Legal Defense Fund? There seems to be no one to contact to get my mother off their list for donating to his fund. I never heard of him before but no matter – my mother has no money to give, yet I keep seeing this stuff show up in her mail. Their is a public group for him on facebook but no way to message someone to get her off….

    Like

    Reply

    • What you describe strikes me as a form of senior abuse. Many states have programs to prevent this. I live in NYC, and we have several. If it were my mother, I would start an online search for programs in my state, and also contact AARP.

      Like

      Reply

      • You are right it is a form of senior abuse. I have contacted the AARP consumer watch dog guy and he blew me off with a very polite email. There may be programs to prevent this from happening, sadly I was brought in after the horse left the barn, and pooped junk mail everywhere.

        Like

      • Hmmm… I think if the AARP guy was so rude as to blow you off without trying to help at all, I would post a nice little message on the ARRP Facebook page, saying that you went to (provide his name) for help, as your parents are being abused, and he blew you off. I’d also post it on my own FB page.
        I am getting so very sick and tired of people who have an important job to do, and don’t do it. These scams, so often directed at seniors, are particularly vicious, and deserve to be treated as such by anyone in a position to help!

        Liked by 1 person

    • The Schaeffer Cox Legal Defense Fund is a project of Alaskans for Liberty. Per the IRS 990 form it is located at (REMOVED NO LONGER ACTIVE) and run by Gene Brokaw. When I Googled the address I got Mr. Brokaw’s name associated with the address (is it his home address?) and a phone number (REMOVED NO LONER ACTIVE). Give him a ring and let me know how it goes.

      Like

      Reply

    • I did get a response from someone running the Facebook page for Schaeffer Cox…she said she would take care of removing my mother’s name immediately. There may be a couple mailings already in the works but she said she would take my mother’s name off. I received about 6-7 responses from groups I contacted via Facebook. Who did NOT respond yet: BAMPAC, US Justice Foundation, American Lung Association, Covenant House, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, CFACT, Freedom Alliance, Ben Carson for President and a couple of Police Benevolent Funds that I don’t remember the exact names of. Covenant House really annoys me as I have reached out to them a couple of times and no response from anyone whatsoever.

      Like

      Reply

  35. Wow, thanks for all the comments over the weekend. I was out in the backcountry and when ever I got a blip of cell service I saw comments awaiting approval. I will reply to everyone when I get a chance.

    Like

    Reply

  36. If the postal service required everyone to pay the current postage rate (49 cents ) for all mail (eliminating the very favorable junk mail rates) would that not make it too expensive to send junk mail ? It would also reduce the cost of running the post office.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  38. God bless you sir. My mother passed away recently, so I’m starting with the first steps you list. I will be following up in three months if the flood of mail to her doesn’t cease.

    Like

    Reply

  40. Wow, thanks for telling me about DMA Choice. I am trying to help my parents stop some of the 20+ pieces of junk mail they get every day. I was particularly delighted to read about your tactic of returning the mailing in the postage-paid envelope. I will definitely do that the next time someone sends coins or those annoying sticky address labels or some other bribe in the mail (my parents have more labels, tote bags, and calendars than they need, and they are not recyclable!). I’m trying to do anything to help my Dad reduce the wall of junk mail that has built up and currently surrounds him at the kitchen table.

    Like

    Reply

  41. Thank you so much for all the great information. My FIL gets about 30-40 pieces of mail a day, mostly political mailings and charity requests. I’ve called/emailed/mailed about 300 requests to take him off the mailing lists in the past weeks. While in the midst of this he was hospitalized and was in a care facility so we had his address temporarily changed to our house, thinking we could further eliminate the junk mail. Now we are only getting a few pieces a day. I think that a lot of the junk is not getting forwarded right now. Do you know what will happen when we transfer the mail back to his house?

    Like

    Reply

    • It takes a while for the wheels of the post office to kick in. You will be getting more soon. I have not reversed an address change so I don’t know exactly what will happen. If you can don’t let the mail go back to his house. It will only cause stress for him. Sort the mail for him and only give him the important stuff.

      Like

      Reply

  42. I don’t think the Post Office forwards most junk mail-Most use non-profit stamps that are 12-24 cents so if it doesn’t go to the original address-then it goes into the trash. I asked the Postoffice what would happen (hoping the mail would be sent back so whoever sent it would stop) if I wrote “refused” on it & returned it. The Postmaster said since it was discounted postage, they would just throw it away.

    Like

    Reply

  43. Evidently, what the USPS considers “junk” is different from my own, as they “kindly” forwarded the political mail. I’m back at square one with my dad’s mail, except I have less time to deal with it this year.

    Like

    Reply

  44. My 85 year old father was receiving three mailings from Federation of Responsible Citizens a week. Did everything to stop it, nothing worked until I filed a complaint with our state Attorney General’s office. Two days after I filed the complaint I received a call from FRC letting me know that my father had been removed perpetually from there mailing list. That was two weeks ago and time will only tell. But it was a fast response.

    Like

    Reply

  45. HI all to day is 17/4/2016…up at 6.30am.looking at a letter.from tw4 6nf silver jubilee way middlesex
    united kingdom..i am a winner….coupon for immediate payment please complete and return in the enclosed response envelope within 10 days of receiving this present letter to FINKELSTEIN & PARTNER , PO BOX 1219 NL-3600 BE MAARSSEN,THE NETHERLANDS .I AM THE WINNER.AND IT CONFIRMED 3 TIMES IT TELLS ME. NOW THERE IS A CODE NUMBER.AMOUNT SENT OUT IS 4604 PRINTED. THE POST STAMP IS C9 10002.I COULD USE THIS ANY TIME I WANT.IF YOU NO HOW. BUT ITS BEST LEFT TO THE NO HOW.
    THIS LETTER HAS BEEN MECHANICALLY DRAWN UP AND CATCHES THE READERS ///ATTENTION// THIS IS ONE OF THE ANNUAL COMPETITIONS ///ORGANISED //WORLDWIDE BY
    FINKELSTEIN & PARTNER AND THEIR AFFILIATED COMPANIES,,,,THE BIG PRIZE WILL BE DRAWN
    ON THE 31/12/2016…….IF 600 SEND £40 THAT WILL MAKE £24.000.00.AFTER THAT IT S PROFET
    ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK…THE ONE YOU NEED TO TALK TO IS MARC SUTHERLAND HE IS THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT……NOW ON FACEBOOK.IT AS BEEN WRITEN FINKELSTEIN & PARTNER.HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. BUT THEY DO NOT SAY WE WILL CONTACT THE PRINTERS IN THE UK. NOW IT S LIKE THE PHONE YOUR RIPT OF ALL DAY LONG.YOU RING A NUMBER.WITH IN A 1/2 OF A MINET .THE PERSON YOUR CALLING IS NOT AVLERBULE .LEAVE A MESSAGE.ALL WILL HANG UP.JUST COST YOU 25P . WOULD YOU LIKE TO WIN £500 EACH WEEK
    JUST LEAVE YOUR NUMBER IT WILL ONLY COST YOU £4.95P A WEEK.ON A FRIDAY WE WILL SEND YOU TEXT YOU HAVE 3MINETS TO FIND THE ANSWER TO THE TEXT QUESTION .AND ITS
    HARD TO DO.BUT SOME ONE GETS THE MONEY. BUT JUST THINK HOW MANY ARE IN IT.
    AS ONE LAWMAN SAID TO ME……ALL ONE AS TO DO IS TELL YOU YOUR A WINNER A BIG WINNER YOU THEN SEND THEM MONEY. AND THEY SEND YOU £1.00 CHECK..WOFF WOFF.
    I LOVE THE PRINTERS THE ALWAYS GIVEN ME A STAMP…………THAT I CAN USE.
    I CALL MY SELF MR TATE MR WINER AND THE BEST IS MR WARD. I SEEN IT ALL.IF YOU FILL IN
    ANY THING ON THE NET. YOU WILL BE IN INDIA BEFORE YOU KNOW IT .
    JUST BIN THE IT DOWT DREAM. OR IT WILL COST YOU IN THE END.
    BEFOR I GO I NO THE SCAMMERS DON’T LIKE THIS BUT I SEND MY MAIL TO THE GOVERNMENT
    OF THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.DO I CARE IF IT GETS THERE.NOT ON YOU LIFE.
    NEVER NEVER SEND MONEY TO ANY. ONE YOU WORK HARD FOR IT. DO NOT DREAM.
    WEAR THERE’S NUMBERS.ONE THINK COULD I MAKE MY SELF RICHER.DOWNT GIVE MONEY TO ANY ONE.AND DOWNT BE GREADY.WHEN SOME ONE FINDS OUT YOUR SENDING MONEY TO
    THE SCAMBOYS. £150.000 WAS GIVEN TO MAN IN AFRICA BUT HE WAS BRITISH.
    HE GOT 8YEARS IN JAIL.HE HAD BANK £4 MILLION.7 OTHERS GOT 3 TO 4 YEARS.
    NOW IF YOU HAD THAT UP.IN YEARS…..WHAT DOSE IT COST TO KEEP THEM IN JAIL £36.000
    A YEAR. AND THEY WILL WANT FOR NOWT.WEAR THE LOSER AS SUFFERED
    MUST STOP DREAMING HAVE GOOD LIFE TO YOU ALL FROM JOHN IN THE UK. .

    Like

    Reply

  46. wow you have no idea how happy i am to find this!!! normally it’d take me DAYS of research to find what you already have found! i’m sooo glad to have your site and thanks so much for sharing your information. a co-worker once told me “sharing is caring!”
    what led me to come upon your site through google, was today, i had received a “scammy” mail from a sender who decided to be thrifty and not put their return address on the envelope. the one they sent before had a return address, so i put a note on the envelope for the postman, return to sender, hence why this 2nd time, no return address. the angry part of me says, they need to me it illegal to not have a return address. i mean that says how scammy they really are. what are they trying to hide?
    my parents would tell me just to ignore it… but i’m not one of those people.

    i also, once a month, receive junk mail from one of those 3rd party agencies you mentioned that send mail for certain companies. i need to find who sends advertising mail for nissan. i love nissan, but once a month they send me mail trying to buy my car. it’s absolutely laughable that they’re even offering the amount they are because in all honesty, even with depreciation, my car is still worth more than that. plus, i am one of the few people that LOVE their car… why would i want to sell it after only 2 years!!

    so that’s my frustration with mail. i have more stories, but most of those i was able to easily call them… 1, 2, 4 times, sometimes to get a call center rep that would actually take time to fill out that form to get me off the mailing list.

    to end this, i’ll share an interesting story with you. i once had a call center rep ARGUE with me over the phone, almost refusing to put me on the ‘do not mail’ list, because his take on it was, just throw it out. i told him boldly, it doesn’t matter what you think, it’s what i’m requesting that’s more important than your thoughts.

    you know those call center reps are just as bad for working for scammy companies like that.

    thanks again!

    Like

    Reply

    • Try using PaperKarma on your junk mail. The junk mail from Nissan is exactly what PaperKarma is for. If that doesn’t work try filling a form 1500 on them. The worst that will happen is the USPS will send it back, and you will be out a stamp.

      Like

      Reply

  48. One solution I haven’t seen mentioned is posting a complaint on Facebook. Most companies have FB pages online which are easily accessed. I have used the threat of posting a problem on FB on some very scummy companies, and ALL of them have resolved the issue very quickly.

    One company made a habit of advertising various hard-to-get health products, accepting the money for the order, then never filling it. No reply to my phone calls (very hard to find their number), and no reply to my emails for weeks. I went to a site called “complaints board” (excellent site by the way, it’s prevented me from getting involved with some bad companies), only to find that others had sent them their credit card numbers for over $100 worth of merchandise and never heard from them again. So I checked and they had a Facebook page. Via email I threatened to expose them as thieves. I got my product within a week. I then went back to the complaint site and told the others what I had done. Hope they all read them the riot act. If all else fails, this might be a solution.

    Like

    Reply

  49. Pingback: Did Citizens United Bamboozle Old Folks? – Viral Stories Storage

  50. Thank you. My father (84 years old) gets 30-60 pieces of mail a day. Most of it is JUNK that obviously looks legitimate. I’ve tried to explain to him how easy it is to create a mailing, charity, website etc that looks “official” these days and how most of those organizations are scammers looking for him to write a check. At one point, he was shredding everything that came with his name on it. At least now I have him throwing most out. But, he still has a hard time with that. It’s a SIN that these companies/organizations take advantage of the elderly this way–trying to chip away at their hard-earned savings/retirement.

    I’ve taken most of the steps outlined above. I’m anxious to see how/when the volume of mail decreases.

    THANK YOU for your help!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment