USPS Junk Mail, Fake Prize Notifications: Business Plan?

[(PeteCresswell)]

A few samples from our mailbox on a single day:

2 common threads:

- Asking for money for some purported charitable organization. (I didn't even bother looking any of them up on Charity Navigator)

- Asking the target to perform an action - like moving a sticker from one place to another or signing a "Reply".

Are other people getting this kind of volume (8-12 in a day)?

Or have we been promoted to "Prime Target" on some sucker list somewhere?

And what's with the compliance tests (moving the sticker, signing something...) ?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Wow, they just want to give you tons of money and you complain? You could be very wealthy.

No, we get some junk but I've not seen that kind of contest stuff very often. Life insurance, car sales, hearing aids are frequent though. Rarely see a contest.

[hubops]

At one time, in the distant past, I would have blamed Publishers ClearingHouse ... .. do you subscribe to any magazines ? I get none of this stuff - not for many years - since I stopped subscribing to magazines. Entering " contests " is another scam to collect your personal info .. just say no ! John T.

[hubops]

Ed - Is your junk mail addressed to you or bulk ? .. big difference. John T.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Some of each. Maybe half is to "Resident"

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

If any of those mailings include a postage paid return envelope send that garbage, being sure to ask them to remove your name AND address from their mailing list.

Also, go to your bank's website and look at their privacy notice. Uncheck the box that allows them to share your name and address with direct mailing (junk mail) companies. Banks are one of the worst offenders for selling your name and address to line their vaults. Do that and you'll soon notice a dramatic drop in that garbage the mailman leaves you.

[rbowman]

You've made prime Sucker status. I get some target stuff like hearing aid ads. I don't know if it's AARP selling me down the river or just mining public information that includes my age. Some Dish spam, and the odd DAV spam to keep me in calendars and address labels.

The Food Bank is the only one that I throw a few bucks at every now and then but they do not appear to have sold me out.

A couple of the local churches go fishing but that's strictly general area delivery.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per [e-mail]:

My strongest suspicion is a good-hearted family member who persists in writing checks to "Charities".

Quotes because, after looking some of them up on Charity Navigator, I come away with the impression that they are just legalized criminals.

I try my best to front-end the mail on the way back to the house from the mailbox and throw the trash in the back of my truck.... but every so often I get caught in the act and catch hell.... also I am not always there to collect the mail and "somebody else" collects it.

A looooong time ago, I subscribed to something like NewsWeek or Time under the name of "Peter Garbage". Got junk USPS mail addressed to Peter Garbage for literally *years* afterward.

Waited and waited for the day that some poor telephone solicitor would ask for "Mr Garbage" so I could go ballistic on them and shout "It's NOT Garbage, it's Garbaaaaage!!!"..... but, sadly it never happened.

I will take Joan's suggestion to check in with the person's bank.

[Fred]

As we all know, telemarketers are like democrats, are just a bunch of thieves and con artists. I suspect Trump will prosecute them too.