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Even though I cancel and unsubscribe from everything I can, 95% of what I receive in the mail is paper spam. If I didn't still receive paper paychecks, it'd be
by ken 7y ago
Even though I cancel and unsubscribe from everything I can, 95% of what I receive in the mail is paper spam. If I didn't still receive paper paychecks, it'd be even higher.
I recognize there's value in having a postal system, but in practice almost everything I receive goes straight in the shredder. It's been taken over by spammers. It's another system that provides real value to a lot of people, but seems to only be financially sustainable because of advertising.
Where's the Plan for this Spam?
- phkahler 7y agoIMHO regular mail is subsidizing all the junk mail. They offer bulk rates based on the assumption that delivery is already paid for.
- sxates 7y agoIt's actually the other way around. The junk mail is paying for your mailman to come by every day. The $.50 for a stamp doesn't cover the cost of delivering a letter.
- dawnerd 7y agoAlso people paying retail rate for packages help offset as well. I've been shipping a lot recently and it's crazy the price difference.
- skinnymuch 7y agoIt’s common to say junk mail subsidizes normal mail. I don’t know if it’s true, but it makes sense.
- dominotw 7y agoAnd a large portion of those spam are malicious scams. Mail that say "confidential" , "open immediately" in red ink, fake credit cards, fake checks ect.
- danso 7y agoWhen I was a residence hall advisor in college, one of my roles was sorting the mail, which has been useful experience years later: basically, you can ignore anything sent as “PRESORTED STANDARD”: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-spot-junk-mail-without-even-opening-the-envelope-38698 https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-spot-junk-mail-with...
- fsaintjacques 7y agoI received my first paper nigerian scam last month!
- xirdstl 7y agoThe importance of a piece of mail is inversely proportional to its claimed importance.
- mythrwy 7y ago(US resident). I haven't gotten one piece of junk mail in nearly 15 years (except for a few generics addressed to "resident", but even they are uncommon). Before that it was weekly shiny newspaper type ads and letter spam by the pound with a tiny bit of real mail. It was an accident but here is how I did it. I had a temporary job back in early 2000's so I got a short term lease in a different city and opened a PO box at post office. Then I unexpectedly got called back and was slated to return but didn't and neglected to close the PO box and forward mail. I was a road warrior for next 5 or 6 years and seldom at permanent address, so I didn't bother putting in address change back to permanent residence. Instead I got an online mail service (I don't know if was this, but something like this https://www.postscanmail.com/ https://www.postscanmail.com/) that opened and scanned mail and I'd read it in browser, download scans, and have important stuff physically forwarded to wherever I was at the time. Finally that all ended and I got a real address and stopped the online mail receiving. For whatever reason something in that process completely stopped the junk mail to this day and it's wonderful.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoSo is the solution going off-grid for several years, or using the scanning service?