In accordance with a 1997 federal law, the nation's major consumer credit bureaus have established a toll-free number. You can call the number below, which works 24 hours a day, to have your name removed from mailing lists used for credit offers by Equifax, Experian, Anovis and Transunion
The recording will ask for your full name, address, telephone number and social security number (the credit bureaus, which already have access to people's social security numbers, say that they ask for the numbers to confirm the requests). 1-888-567-8688
Press 3 to have your name removed permanently.
Press 1 to have your name removed for only five years.
They will then insist on sending you a form to fill out and return.
Go to the Direct Marketing Association website:
https://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing
You can either fill out an online form at the above page for a fee of $1.00, payable by credit card, or fill out the mail-in registration form, also on the above page, and mail it in with a $1 check or money order, payable to the Direct Marketing Association, to the address on the form.
Although you will see a great reduction in the unsolicited mail you receive, not all-commercial mail will stop. You may continue to receive mail from companies with which you already do business, and from non-Direct Marketing Association member companies that do not use their service. In addition, you may continue to receive mail from local merchants, professional and alumni associations, political candidates and office holders, and mail addressed to "resident/occupant."
Contact the Federal Trade Commission's National Do Not Call Registry or by phone at 1-888-382-1222.
If you do not want your name passed on to other companies for the purpose of receiving marketing offers, contact: privacychoices@pchmail.com or write to Christopher L. Irving, Senior Director of Consumer & Privacy Affairs, www.pch.com, 382 Channel Drive, Port Washington, New York, 11050.
Send postcards along the following lines to the address list below
To Whom It May Concern:
Please remove my name from your mailing list. Doing this will save
you money, preserve our natural resources and reduce the amount of waste going to landfills. Thank you for canceling my name and address from future mailings. Sincerely, Name and address
Some companies specialize in collecting and selling mailing lists. Write or call these companies and ask to be placed in their "suppress" files: Donnelley Marketing, Inc.
470 Chestnut Ridge Rd.
Woodcliff, NJ 07677
(800) 223-7777 Donnelley Marketing, Inc.
Data Base Operations
416 South Bell
Aimes, IA 50010
(888) 633-4402 Experian
List Maintenance
901 West Bond
Lincoln, NE 68521 (800) 228-4571 ADVO
List Services
1, Univac Lane
Windsor CT 06095-0755
Or fill in an on-line form at Advo Consumer Support American Express
Customer Service
200 Vesey St Tower CN
New York NY 10285 Dunn & Bradstreet
Customer Service
899 Eaton Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18025 Equifax Options
PO Box 740123
Atlanta GA 30374-0123 Harte Hanks Direct Marketing
List Maintenance
100 Alco Place
Baltimore MD 21227-2090 Metromail Corp.
List Maintenance
901 W. Bond
Lincoln, NE 68521 Money Mailer
14271 Corporate Drive
Garden Grove CA 92643-4994 R L Polk & Co
Consumer Response Dept
26955 Northwestern Highway # 200
Southfield MI 48034 Trans Union
555 W Adams Street
Chicago IL 60661-3601 TRW-NCAC
Target Marketing Services
701 TRW Parkway
Allen TX 75002 Return junk mail stamped "address correction requested" or "return postage guaranteed." Return junk mail unopened to the sender by writing "Refused. Return to sender." on the envelope. Without this special notation the post office will not return the mail to the sender. Most catalogs provide an 800-telephone number for placing an order; call this number and ask to be taken off their mailing list. If you receive unwanted flyers or mail, call the customer service department of the organization or business responsible and request that your name be removed from their mailing list. Alternatively, send in a written request that is signed and dated. Include a sample of the mailing label so the sender can identify how you are listed in their files. Whenever you donate money, order a product or service, or fill out a warranty card, write in large letters, "Please do not sell my name or address". Most organizations will properly mark your name in the computer. Most of these cards are send to the National Demographics and Lifestyles Company which compiles direct mail lists of people based on the life-style, family income, and buying habits that people describe on the cards. They are not required in most situations - avoid sending them. Contact: National Demographics and Lifestyles Company
List Order Department
1621 18th St., Suite 300
Denver, CO 80202 On the telephone, ask "Please mark my account so that my name is not traded or sold to other companies". Select a false middle name or initial for each charity or business you deal with. Keep track of which letter goes to which organization. You can also select a false address, e.g place, circle, street, highway, parkway, etc.". Some guides recommend changing the spelling of your name, but this can lead to duplicate mailings. Cross out the address and bar code, circle the first class postage and write "refused: return to sender". Drop in any mailbox. It will be returned to the sender. The post office throws away bulk mail it can't deliver, so returning it useless. The USPS actively provides addresses, support and encouragement to mailers. However, if "address correction requested" is written on the label, circle "address correction requested" and treat like first class mail. The only help you'll get from the Post Office in controlling junk mail is for explicit stuff. Fill out USPS forms 1500 if you wish this type of mail to stop. You define what you find to be explicit. Call them at 1-800-237-2400. Call 1-800-67-TARGET to get off the list. You have to fill out one change of address card for each unique last name. Write: "Moved, Left No Forwarding Address", as the new address. Sign your own name and write: "Form filled in by current resident of the house, [Your Name], agent for the above". You must write "agent for the above". Hand this form directly to your mail carrier; if possible, as your carrier must approve the form and see that it gets entered into the post service National Change of Address (NCOA) database. This is very effective. Contact ADVO ("Mailbox Values") and Harte Hanks ("Potpourri"). Addresses are above. Stamp out moneymaking schemes, multi-level marketing, fly-by-night operators, stock market "secrets", etc. If you suspect fraud, send a copy of the mail to the National Fraud Information Center. If it relates to selling stocks, send to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Secure your web page: If you include a "mailto" link, as below, expect to get junk mail. Remove the "mailto" and force people to manually enter the email address. State your email address in a way readable only to humans (e.g.. "recycle" at machine "obviously.com"). Secure your computer: If your PC is running a mail server (such as Sendmail or Exchange) it may be used by spammers. Spammers often hijack innocent machines. Check yourself at ORDB . ORDB does not itself block email. It simply keeps track of which servers have been confirmed to be open SMTP relays. You can supply the name or IP address of a server you suspect of being an open relay -- or, if you've recently discovered you were an open relay, you can submit your mail server's address to ORDB for clearing. The clearing process is automatic, but may take a few days to become effective. You can submit open relays via mail as well. Here is how you do it. Send email to relays@ordb.org containing a maximum of 100 ip-addresses formatted like this: Relay: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Note that you can not submit more than 100 relays at a time, and maximum of 200 pr. day. Any additional submissions will be ignored. Post to a newsgroup these days and you can be sure of getting both target SPAM (sports messages for posting in a sports group) and untargeted email. You can use an obviously false return address on postings: most news programs let you set this to whatever you want. Include your real email address (coded as above) in body of the message.Mailing List Brokers
Mailing Houses
Other options
Return junk mail
Call mail order catalog companies.
Contact specific organizations or businesses.
Donations and Orders
Avoid sending Product Warranty cards
Phone orders
Tracking the culprits
First class mail
Bulk mail
Sexually Oriented Advertising
American Family Sweepstakes
Carol Wright
Mail for Former Residents
Loose, un-addressed leaflets
SPAM