Junk mail

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I've been receiving a lot of bizarre junk mail lately. I think it started with an opportunity to join an Australian lottery (with scratchcard) and has included numerous opportunities to win £2000 or jewellery of that value by sending a cheque for £20 to some address in Hong Kong (yeah, right, I'm really going to do that). Recently I had an invitation to a tarot reading by a clairvoyant from Aldershot.

So, do you get much junk mail? How do you deal with it? Bin it instantly? Return it shredded in the prepaid envelope?

― MarkH, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

new junk mail answers!!!

― MarkH, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

usually bin it instantly. the few times i have written back requesting that they take me of the mailing list have resulted in 0 happening. i heard though that there's an address you can write to to be removed from all mailing lists - anyone know about that?

― katie, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought I had links to the appropriate bodies somewhere, but I don't. Anyway, they're called the Mailing Preference Service and the Telephone Preference Service. The links weren't working for me earlier, but you may have more luck. Googling it didn't seem to help much either, although this link does give some info about the telephone version.

― Mark C, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

in ref junk email, it's all deeply irritating, tho the I did chuckle briefly at one that began "Hi Pete, here's that link you were asking about: She's barely legal and she does cuttlefish" [actually i forget the exact taste pandered to]

Where is pete at the moment? Still in Sri Lanka? I can forward it if nec.

― mark s, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Pete's still in Sri Lanka until I think Wednesday.

― Tom, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

We get loads through our door: Kebab leaflets, club fliers etc. It also appears the entire student village got a brochure for a DIY store offering great deals on paint and carpet. Do the words "we're renting" mean nothing any more?

― Graham, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Quite a bit, but not as much as in past years, which is nice. My grandma used to burn it regularly in her fireplace, using it as kindling. Good move.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have been getting a different Victoria's Secret catalog nearly every day. How much lingerie do they think I need? I usually just end up junking them.

― Nicole, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

[quoted from an old email from someone, not me - i haven't tried it:]

In the UK you can opt out of paper junk mail by registering your name and address with the Mailing Preference Service. After I registered I got no more paper junk mail addressed to me. Occasionally I get junk mail sent to my address which have no name on them.

Mailing Preference Service
Freepost 22
London
W1E 7EZ

it's the same as e-mail spam at the moment - the UK government think [stupidly] that it should be opt-out (i.e. anyone can send you stuff, as long as there is an unsubscribe facility available. Since the MPS is run by the mass-mailers it's not a perfect solution, and only the more reputable people will presumably use it's database.

― m jemmeson, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i heard though that there's an address you can write to to be removed from all mailing lists - anyone know about that?

how it actually works, is that the more respectable companies or marketing ppl run their database against the Mailing Preference Service's database, and don't send the mail to those names which match. presumably they still keep your name (and could sell on to other companies), and secondly it could rely on the address being an exact match, and UK addresses can often be written in several ways, particularly for those in blocks of flats.

with email spam, never reply or click on any link within the mail (including those to unsubscribe) - they may track the reply or the click to determine whether an address is real, and then they can sell others lists of 'guaranteed working' email addresses. if the mail comes from a site you've visited or signed up at, it doesn't count as spam, and you should be able to unsubscribe (although with difficulty in some cases)

― m jemmeson, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

How much lingerie do they think I need?

They're just waiting to rename the store Nicole's Open Secret.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have received letters from three different groups, all with the purpose of stopping the ACLU. And "Diabetes Interview" magazine.

― 1 1 2 3 5, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

i just got this catalog called 'international male' - i'm really hoping this thing does not show up regularly in my mailbox :(

― ron (ron), Saturday, 19 April 2003 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

nine years pass...

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/08/postal-service-stuck-with-682m-unsold-simpsons-stamps-/1?morestories=obnetwork#.UFHaUbJlS-0

― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Thursday, 13 September 2012 13:07 (twelve years ago)

nine years pass...

https://i.imgur.com/NcvxHy2.png

Just a thousand guys in a company organizin’

― calstars, Monday, 3 January 2022 18:02 (three years ago)

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