18 ms·

How to stop junk mail

366 points by user3939382 4y ago

slang800 4y ago
As a matter of principle, I am not paying a $2 "processing fee" to stop people from sending garbage to my mailbox. Also, the permanent credit card offer opt-out requires me to print and send a letter from each address I live at. This is clearly designed to be as annoying as possible so nobody does it.
- gaadd33 4y ago
  1.6 cents per month seems pretty reasonable to solve what would otherwise just consume some of your time. An ideal world, there wouldn't be a processing fee but we don't live in that world. Aa far as the credit card opt out, you can also freeze your credit and I believe that has a similar impact since no one can make unauthorized inquiries.
  - bozhark 4y ago
    You can mail the junk back to the sender at their own cost. If you make it cost too much to send to you, they stop on their own. It takes about 5-7 months
    - forrestbennett 4y ago
      How do you mail it back to sender at their cost?
      - IncRnd 4y ago
        Do not open it, and write "return to sender".
        fortran77 4y ago
        This is untrue. For the cheapest classes of mail, (e.g., "bulk rate") it is not returned, it is discarded.
        IncRnd 4y ago
        It is true. I shred those bulk mailings, but I was referencing the many Junk but non-bulk class letters I receive. It makes no sense to write return to sender on a bulk-mailer. While much Junk mail is sent via bulk rate, Junk in this context refers to the content not to the mailing class of bulk.
      - bilalnpe 4y ago
        Some have a prepaid envelop for your response.
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  I’ve done both and it was worth it. Highly recommended. One can also consider a mail processor if you’re nomadic or on the road often; you give out that address, pay $10-$20/month for the service, and they dispose of the junk mail and scan in only paper mail of importance for review. Edit: will return with mail processor recommendations when not mobile.
  - bozhark 4y ago
    Any recommended country or US state specifically? Have a couple remote operations this would be useful for
    - lh7777 4y ago
      Not the OP, but I've been using St. Brendan's Isle[1] for about a year and it's been great. I've also heard good things about My RV Mail[2]. Both are in Florida, I think mostly because it's a popular state for full-time RVers to establish as their domicile -- no income tax, low vehicle licensing fees, etc. I looked at bigger name services like Anytime Mailbox and Earthclass Mail, but found a lot of complaints about reliability, hidden fees, etc. in the reviews. Many of these services contract with local businesses (like convenience stores and independent shipping shops) to actually receive your mail, so your experience could be great or terrible depending on the address you choose. St. Brendan's Isle and My RV Mail both handle all mail in-house. [1] https://www.sbimailservice.com/ https://www.sbimailservice.com/ [2] https://myrvmail.com/ https://myrvmail.com/
      - toomuchtodo 4y ago
        That is the one I recommend for personal mail and use, as you can establish domicile with them as you mention. Also, their address doesn’t throw any flags with brokerages and other financial services providers as a commercial mail processor.
  - DividableMiddle 4y ago
    Any that you recommend or know of?
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > As a matter of principle, I am not paying a $2 "processing fee" to stop people from sending garbage to my mailbox. I feel like that must be relatively new. I swear I used that site and I'm pretty sure I didn't have to pay a fee. I bet they added it to discourage people from going through with the process.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    A $1 authorized charge would work for a little bit of "real person here" verification, but I'd imagine the $2 is to discourage auto-filling an entire town's worth of people via a script; all you'd need is, say, a voter registration list to get the necessary info of name and address.
    - bilalnpe 4y ago
      They could confirm the address you are requesting with the billing address on the card. This is what the '$1 authorized charge' is for when you submit the address change/mail forwarding request.
      - ceejayoz 4y ago
        AVS chokes on apartment numbers pretty regularly.
      - hamburglar 4y ago
        I get shit loads of junk mail at my second address, which is not the billing address for my credit cards. They have to have a way to deal with that too.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  I kinda love that they're offering PayPal Credit as a payment option. A six month loan for a $2 purchase?
  - bozhark 4y ago
    How much of a credit boost does $0.33/month give you?
    - ceejayoz 4y ago
      Under the hood, it's a credit card; you'll get a credit line much larger than the $2. How it impacts your credit depends quite a bit on how many other accounts you have, and for how long; a thin, short credit file will be more heavily impacted by a new account.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- zikduruqe 4y ago
  I paid my $2 processing fee two years ago, and I now seldom get any junk mail period. Best $2 I have spent in my life.
thenerdhead 4y ago
I was looking for this website again for junk mail. It looked so sketchy the first time, but I’m gonna bite the bullet and see if this saves me time over the next ten years from having to throw away junk mail. $2 is worth the experiment.
- jrockway 4y ago
  I did this many years ago. 99.9% of my mail is still junk, just junk where I have some sort of weaselly pre-existing relationship with the company sending mail. ("You donated money to us! Can we have some more!? We spent it all on this marketing campaign and now it's gone!")
  - rinze 4y ago
    This used to happen to me (in Montreal, so perhaps not the same as your experience) with SPCA. I emailed them and told them very politely that I donate on my own schedule, that I appreciate the work they do, and to please stop wasting their (my) money asking me for more donations. They replied thanking me for the e-mail and saying that they had removed me from their mailing list.
  - dehrmann 4y ago
    This is why I stopped donating to KQED.
  - knodi123 4y ago
    Any online order or phone order is an automatic opt-in to their catalog. I used to let my wife handle her own mail and I handled mine, but it got so out of control that I saved all her garbage for 1 month and showed it to her, and now I'm allowed to opt her out of everything. Took a few months but we finally got it down to the bare minimum. It's nice. If I miss a day or two of checking my mailbox, it doesn't overflow!
  - thenerdhead 4y ago
    Do you still get the traditional junk mail though? I heard this trick specifically from a postman at USPS and decided to act again given I found the link again.
anonymousisme 4y ago
I've done this and it makes a big difference, but I still get a lot of junk from local businesses. Either those businesses are not part of the DMA, or they are ignoring the opt-out list. I'm not sure what to do about it.
- btrettel 4y ago
  I've done this as well. Another issue I've noticed is that when a certain item is set to go to "all" addresses, the mail carrier will simply give one to everyone until they run out. This is probably right most of the time. But I would consistently get junk mail for my neighbor with an apartment number one higher than mine. I recall reporting this to the USPS multiple times without any effect. The only thing that helped was putting a note inside my mailbox to check for my neighbor's mail.
- yojo 4y ago
  I just Google the business and email them. Usually they're able to take me off their mailing list. Also as I recall, there was a coupon mailer that did not participate in the DMA. The flyers show up with branding from Vericast/Save/Valassis. The opt out for them is here: https://www.save.com/mailing/delivery-options https://www.save.com/mailing/delivery-options Similarly I recently moved houses and got a ton of catalogs to the former owner. It was a PITA to get sorted out, but after a couple months of diligent removal requests my mail is mostly stuff I care about.
  - b3morales 4y ago
    I wish there was some equivalent of credit card chargebacks for USPS bulk mail. If I mark the mailpiece as being to someone not at the address, the USPS would bill the company for the failed delivery. (Also the "Or Current Resident" loophole is ridiculous.) Then this would be the organization's problem to keep their own lists up to date. I realize this is probably infeasible but it would be nice.
- 7speter 4y ago
  From what I understand, local businesses can make an arrangement to send out mass mailers at a bulk price with their local post office. Maybe you see it as junk but I can see why being aware of whats available as far as the local economy (while helping keep the post office afloat) may make those mass mailers (assuming I’m making the right connections) “not junk.” Jmo though
thrill 4y ago
Probably works just as well as the do not call list.
- user3939382 4y ago
  I’ve been doing it for years and it works. I get almost 0 junk mail. The 2-3 per year that slip through I contact and ask them to remove me.
ghaff 4y ago
Honestly, it used to be far more of an issue when going away for more than one or two weeks at some times of the year resulted in a mailbox full of stuff--meaning you really had to get your mail held. These days I find far fewer catalogs--and certainly thick catalogs--get sent. I did get a larger mailbox, mostly for packages. And I still get a fairly high junk to organizations I do business with to actually important mail ratio. But I can mostly ignore my mailbox for a week at a time easily.
rdxm 4y ago
shipman05 4y ago
I've done this, but most of the junk mail I get is from previous residents of my home, even though I've lived at my present address for over 3 years now. I've called some of the frequent mailers and had some success. Others have impossible to find contact info. I've talked to my letter carriers, and it will get better for a few weeks and then be back to normal. I'd say I get 3x the mail for previous resident than I do for myself. It's frustrating. Would be great if USPS just had a form I could fill out that automatically stopped delivery for certain names (and gave that info back to the mailers so they could stop generating the waste).
- camhenlin 4y ago
  Go do a change of address on the USPS website for the previous residents. Costs a dollar or so per last name
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    Only lasts a year, though.
    - kshacker 4y ago
      Maybe setup mail hold for however long they allow, then sort it just once that time period (maybe once per quarter)?
    - dwater 4y ago
      Yes but it also adds an entry to a mail list update dataset that USPS sends out. I worked at a company that had a magazine and every month USPS would send a CD with an updater. I never looked into how the technology worked but it allowed a sender to auto update their database to the new address.
  - Mindless2112 4y ago
    Per the form: > The person who prepares this form states that he or she is the person, executor, guardian, authorized officer, or agent of the person for whom mail would be forwarded under this order. Anyone submitting false or inaccurate information on this form is subject to punishment by fine or imprisonment or both under Sections 2, 1001, 1702, and 1708 of Title 18, United States Code.
DangitBobby 4y ago
If the USPS offered a subscription service where they throw trash away instead of stuffing it into my mailbox, I would pay it with a smile on my face. I don't even care that it probably meets the definition of a protection racket.
- alar44 4y ago
  The tradeoff is that you can mail anything anywhere in days for extremely cheap. Mail is cheap because of spam mail.
  - DangitBobby 4y ago
    I don't mail anything. I've considered removing my mailbox altogether.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      While one can increasingly do a lot of things electronically, there are certainly documents that governments send that expect a valid mailing address. And may have legal consequences if you don't respond to them. I receive a number of local bills for example that I'm not aware of an electronic option.
      - DangitBobby 4y ago
        Yes, I also ultimately decided to keep the mailbox.
    - stevenjgarner 4y ago
      You cannot run an online business relying on location services (e.g. Google My Business) without a mailing address to send a verification post card. Many states also require a mailing address to send a driver license. Many countries require a mail address for an online national id (e.g. https://www.realme.govt.nz/ https://www.realme.govt.nz/ in New Zealand).
      - 4y ago
Ansil849 4y ago
> You can decide what types of mail you do and don’t want from marketers. Register at the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) consumer website DMAchoice.org, and choose what catalogs, magazine offers, and other mail you want to get. You’ll have to pay a $2 processing fee, and your registration will last for 10 years. Is it just me, or is it insanely fucked up that in order to reduce the amount of junk mail you have to 1) first provide your information to yet another third-party site, and 2) pay money. This is beyond backwards.
- tdehnel 4y ago
  You are already paying a lot more than that for the USPS. $2 extra to save myself hours of sorting through mail for the next 10 years is worth it.
  - Ansil849 4y ago
    That's placing an awful lot of faith in this third-party website doing what it is intended to do, as opposed to other possibilities such as it not doing much of anything at all, or worse yet, exposing your data at some point. Instead, my approach whenever I receive junkmail is: 1) I write to the sender to request that all of my information be removed from their databases and that I did not consent to receiving any information from them. 2) I file a report with the Better Business Bureau: https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint 3) If they have a public-facing presence on a site like Google Reviews, Yelp, and so on, I leave a review detailing that this company sends out spam. 4) And most importantly, I keep a spreadsheet of companies that have sent me spam, and try to avoid ever giving them any of my money or labor.
    - orzig 4y ago
      First, thank you. I’m free riding in the positive pressure you’ve exerted. Does it work for you? Do they stop, and is it worth the time? Also, do you go through all four steps at the “first offense”? Rightly or not it’s considered business as usual to blanket a geographical area on occasion, so there are only a few places which are constant enough I’d actually consider myself vengeful instead of annoyed.
lvl102 4y ago
I had a PO box that I kept for my side business. Never really used it other than to have it as my address, but I received so much junk. I had to go in and clean it out every week. If I didn’t, I’d get notices from the post office. I finally asked them stop putting in all the junk in my mail box. They said, I’d have to call them individually to stop. That’s when I realized, the post office actually makes money from doing this so they have zero incentive to stop.
- downrightmike 4y ago
  Exact opposite for me, I use a pobox, because they won't put junk in there.
akelly 4y ago
Is there anything you can do for landline spam calls? Or spam texts? My family is inundated.
- IgorPartola 4y ago
  Pick up the phone and then immediately hang up. That will often times tell them that the line is dead. Pick up the phone and ask them to put you on a do not call list. Surprisingly that works for some of these. Pick up the phone and fuck with them. “911, what’s the location of your emergency” is my standard greeting no matter who calls me. Or tell them you are a Jehovah’s witness and as them if they’ve heard the good word. Tell them this is a cell phone and your state allows up to $$$ per phone call if you take them to small claims. This usually works well with asking their full name and the name of their company and the name of their supervisor.
  - kshacker 4y ago
    This is what I have done (for car warranty): Want to get warranty for a horse carriage Want to get warranty for a 1930s Model T Want to get warranty for a future 2023 car Want to speak to Kate when the person calling is Cathy. No no no I really want to speak to Kate. Want to ask if they can call me at a specific time rather than random so that I know it is them Max talk time has been 10 seconds. I wish I had the skills to prolong the call.
    - bilalnpe 4y ago
      >I wish I had the skills to prolong the call. You could start by giving them more realistic car details. I engaged them one time when I got really annoyed. Gave fake car details (but realistic), call back number of local McDonalds, and then kept asking for details about the coverage. I eventually declined it and the sales agent got super pushy with scare tactics so I hung up.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  Complain to your Congressional representatives. There's action being taken, but it's slow; a big provision kicks in at the end of this month. https://www.fcc.gov/spoofed-robocalls https://www.fcc.gov/spoofed-robocalls > Caller ID authentication is critical for protecting consumers against spoofed robocalls where scammers mask their identity, harass consumers, and seek to defraud vulnerable communities. Caller ID authentication, based on so-called STIR/SHAKEN standards, provides a common information sharing language between networks to verify caller ID information which can be used by robocall blocking tools, FCC investigators, and by consumers trying to judge if an incoming call is likely legitimate or not. On June 30, 2021, the FCC confirmed that all the largest voice service providers had implemented these standards in the IP sections of their networks, in accordance with the FCC’s deadline. While some small carriers were afforded an extension of this deadline, Chairwoman Rosenworcel shortened the amount of time afforded to a subset of small voice service providers based on evidence that they were originating an increasing quantity of illegal robocalls. Thus, small voice service providers that are not facilities-based must implement STIR/SHAKEN in the IP portions of their networks no later than June 30, 2022. That "small voice service providers" loophole is what's currently abused; a few of them have found being lax on spam detection means they can rake in fees for a while. https://epic.org/documents/scam-robocalls-telecom-providers-profit/ https://epic.org/documents/scam-robocalls-telecom-providers-... > Every answered scam robocall pays money to those providers, as well as to every telephone service provider in the call path. Even when these providers are told—sometimes repeatedly—that they are transmitting fraudulent calls, they keep doing it, because they are making money from these calls.
deleted 4y ago
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dehrmann 4y ago
Suppose I move and have a new address. Is there any way to stop new mail? Catalogs are easy enough to stop. I'm thinking things like political mailers. It's almost like you need to keep your name out of public records (DMV, voter registration, property title) to avoid them.
zbird 4y ago
i_am_proteus 4y ago
Junk mail can be refused. https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remove-name-from-mailing-lists https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remo... Send it back to them. Make it their problem.
- aldebran 4y ago
  My post person wrote “you can’t just decline mail” and dropped it back in my mailbox. I did write “return to sender” on it. I even tried writing “return to sender. Declined by receiver”. I wrote to the postmaster general. Nothing came of it.
  - mkeedlinger 4y ago
    (Note, I get really petty about this stuff) My solution is like said above: return it to sender. If your post person is trying to keep it your problem, make it USPS' problem: when returning to sender put it in a postbox that your post person can't gate-keep. I've personally had pretty good success with this, albeit it does require consistent effort for a while.
    - lostcolony 4y ago
      Yeah; put it in a post box, period. If they have a personal (outgoing) mailbox that they are putting just the one piece of mail into, the mail person can skim over it, see the marker, and make decisions. If it's a post box that is filled with a bunch of people's outgoing mail, no postal worker is going to read over it that way. Further, if you've blacked out the 'to' address with a marker (as I do), and written 'Return to Sender', they then are faced with either returning it to sender...or treating it as a dead letter that is undeliverable. They won't do the latter if there is a sender they can return it to, ergo...back it goes.
      - aldebran 4y ago
        Yeah this is a good idea. Going to drop it off at a friends outbox.
aldebran 4y ago
I’ve done all of this multiple times. It got better for a couple of months and then started again. The same senders. Real estate agents, coupons, houseware ads… I’ve even written “return to sender” and my post person wrote “you can’t just decline mail” and dropped it back in my mailbox. I’m so sick of this.
- user3939382 4y ago
  Wrong. “Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), Sect. 604.8.1.2 and Sect. 507.1.8.2 provide two instances where mail can be refused when it is offered for delivery, or, after delivery. You may mark “Refused” and return it unopened within a reasonable time.” https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remove-name-from-mailing-lists https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remo...
  - aldebran 4y ago
    I’m going to get real petty about this. Thanks for sharing!
    - encryptluks2 4y ago
      I tried getting petty and submitting complaints to Postmaster General. Eventually they told me if I kept refusing mail, especially the Direct Mail that advertisers use (to Current Resident), they just wouldn't deliver my mail anymore.
joshe 4y ago
Another fun thing you can do is return all prepaid response envelopes empty, to increase the cost of the advertising. Marketing mail for the USPS is $13.9 billion of their total revenue of $73.1 billion. (19% of total revenue). The USPS could easily provide a form that let you opt out of all bulk marketing mail. https://qz.com/emails/quartz-obsession/2062562/junk-mail/ https://qz.com/emails/quartz-obsession/2062562/junk-mail/
- icelancer 4y ago
  Wow that's... a really simple solution. Never thought to just drop the empty envelopes in the mail. Definitely going to start doing that.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    Better yet, fill with glitter first.
    - arthurcolle 4y ago
      I don't think encouraging people to engage in domestic terrorism is a good approach, although as a response to bulk spammers... maybe?
      - omginternets 4y ago
        You have a very different definition of “terrorism” than the rest of us.
        arthurcolle 4y ago
        It was a joke, old sport
        omginternets 4y ago
        The delivery needs work, friend ;)
Stratoscope 4y ago
I don't care much about junk mail in envelopes. I don't get that much, and it's easy to toss. What I do care about are those !@#$%^&* newsprint bulk ads that I get every few days. I have allergies, and I play harmonica, so my hands are often close to my face. If I just touch that stack of newsprint long enough to toss it in the recycle bin, my hands stink after that. I have to use a combination of soap and isopropyl to get even a fraction of the smell out. I realize that the USPS makes money delivering those newsprint ads. Whatever they make, I would gladly pay twice that or more to never get one again. Does anyone know if the DMAchoice thing would stop the newsprint ads? I have a feeling it wouldn't, but would be delighted to be wrong about this.
- gdulli 4y ago
  I opted out of those and they stopped coming. Mine came with opt out instructions I assume because of a law, so yours probably do too.
zephrx1111 4y ago
I don’t see the point of giving up more personal privacy, just to beg some org that we have no control, for some mercy that they may take back anytime they want. Are we encouraging them to send us more junk whatever, and then charge us more for their spareness? Is there really end of this game, if the rule is in their hands?
deleted 4y ago
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annoyingnoob 4y ago
You cannot optout of USPS services like Every Door Delivery Mail. https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm
spike021 4y ago
I wish there were a way to list all previous inhabitants of my apartment address who still get mail sent here and somehow tell USPS "no, they no longer live here". I routinely, in both of my previous apartments, receive(d) mail for at least 3-5 people who lived here before me. Many of them important documents, like from the DMV. Yes I know I can "mark" them with a pen/sharpie as having moved, but I don't always bring a pen to my mailbox with me to do that with. There must be an easier way.
- LegitShady 4y ago
  I take the effort of marking them "return to sender" and throwing them in a mailbox for outbound mail. I don't know if they actually get sent back, but my hope is that if the important mail gets sent back the org that sent it will try and find their new address.
  - heretogetout 4y ago
    I've been tempted to buy a rubber stamp with "return to sender" or "not at this address" or whatever. I don't relish the thought of spending money to deal with other people's problems, though. In any case after a few years I just toss their mail in the trash, junk or otherwise. If they don't care to file change of address forms then I don't care either. I don't think this is technically legal, though.
  - astrange 4y ago
    If it’s second class mail (has a long barcode on it) that does nothing, but it’s also safe to throw away.
    - colejohnson66 4y ago
      Isn’t throwing it away a federal crime?
      - astrange 4y ago
        They don't care about bulk mail, if you try to return it it'll just be destroyed anyway. If it's not addressed to you at all then you should probably return it of course.
cwillu 4y ago
“Sharing your Social Security number and date of birth is optional, but the website says that giving this information can help them ensure that they can successfully process your request. It says the information you give is confidential and will be used only to process your request to opt out.” “The website says”? How wonderful.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- petemill 4y ago
  It didn't even accept my social security number complaining that the number was too high...
  - colejohnson66 4y ago
    Let me guess: it’s more than 2^31-1 or 2^32-1 if converted to a binary number?
sumthinprofound 4y ago
Years ago I completed the permanent opt-out for everyone in my household (needing to mail in a paper form is shameful). However, very few unsolicited junk mails since. For any that get through I call that company's support line and request removal. Works ~90% of the time. One cool free feature the USPS does offer is Informed Delivery [0]: Every morning around 7am I get an email from the postal service with scanned images of all the mail (face of the envelope) I'm receiving that day. [0] https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.acti...
- malandrew 4y ago
  I have mixed feelings about unformed delivery as I don’t think government should have scanned copies of all the mail you get. It’s as personal as when we decided that your video rental history was. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act
  - homero 4y ago
    They scanned them before then to route them.
    - propogandist 4y ago
      likely transactional data to sustain operations vs retaining the information, which may only happen after opting into the informed delivery service.
      - krsrhe 4y ago
  - crayboff 4y ago
    They scan all mail already, that's how it gets routed to each home. Informed delivery just has them email you those images they are already taking. Also in case you were thinking it, they don't open the boxes/letters. It's just the front of it
VWWHFSfQ 4y ago
> Thank you! > The following is a confirmation of your Opt-Out request. > In order to complete your Permanent Opt-Out election, you must print and mail the Permanent Opt-Out Election form. what was the fucking point of this Edit: my opt-out was for 5 years. The "Permanent" opt-out requires mailing them. lol USPS is completely overrun by garbage mail.
criddell 4y ago
Ever since the Seinfeld episode where Kramer decides he's going to opt out of mail after receiving too many catalogs I've wondered why you can't do that.
- antiframe 4y ago
  Governments will contact you primarily via the USPS. The IRS, the local court, etc. Also, it's a viable method of serving a suit. If you could opt out of USPS delivery you lose a pretty secure and reliable channel of official communication. It would be nice to opt out of all bulk mail and non-first-class mail, etc though.
  - criddell 4y ago
    Well, you can opt out of mail, but that usually means opting out of living in a building that you own or rent. I'm thinking specifically of people who live on a boat or in an RV year round.
MiddleEndian 4y ago
I decided to stop checking my mail for three months to see what would happen. Eventually, they just put a little thing in my mailbox indicating that all mail would be returned to sender. That was fine with me until my family kept telling me they couldn't send me cards and such, so I went and resolved it with the post office. If not for that, I'd be completely mail-free in my home. EDIT: I do get substantially less junkmail now though, so some of these organizations may have come to the conclusion I no longer live here.
- asdff 4y ago
  My mailperson wrote on a scrap of junkmail in sharpie to start checking my mail more
  - MiddleEndian 4y ago
    All of my very necessary™ professional™ mail goes to my PO box, which I also don't check very often. Did you end up checking your mail more often?
- betwixthewires 4y ago
  I haven't checked my mail in 2 years. Its great.
  - chrononaut 4y ago
    What do you do about jury duty notifications? (If you live in the US)
    - stjohnswarts 4y ago
      It would get returned to sender and I guess they'd assume you are no longer there? They can't do anything if you never received notice.
nerdbaggy 4y ago
Here is the link to opt out of credit card offers. https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ https://www.optoutprescreen.com/
mutant 4y ago
I've tried this several times, hasn't worked once.
amingilani 4y ago
For Canada Post[0]: To stop getting unaddressed advertising, simply put a note on your mailbox stating that you do not wish to receive Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail™. Place the note in or on your mailbox, or on the inside lip of your community mailbox, group mailbox or postal box. [0](https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/kb/receiving/mail-delivery/how-to-stop-receiving-advertising-mail https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/kb/rec...)
lh7777 4y ago
On a related note, I've been using Catalog Choice[1] for years to unsubscribe from unwanted catalogs (which for me is all of them). It's free and I find it's quicker and easier than figuring out how each company's opt-out process works. [1] https://www.catalogchoice.org/ https://www.catalogchoice.org/
Aspos 4y ago
There should be DNS for paper mail. Telling everyone where I live just to receive mail sounds insane in XXI. I wish I could get a permanent address such as myname@usps.com and get paper mail directed as needed every time I move. Allowing people redirect paper mail to spam could save USPS billions.
- chii 4y ago
  > There should be DNS for paper mail. is that what a PO box is for? You can give out your PO box instead of an address. unfortunately, the mailing address is sometime (ab)used by parties that also want your real address.
  - mauvehaus 4y ago
    PO Boxes are tied to specific post offices and/or ZIP codes. There are almost certainly hundreds of not thousands of addresses that are PO Box 271 in the USA. What GP wants AIUI is a single mailable id that can be mapped to any delivery point in the area that the USPS serves.
- hawaiianbrah 4y ago
  What is XXI?
  - shukantpal 4y ago
    Cringe way to say 21st century
    - maleldil 4y ago
      Not necessarily cringe. Some countries (eg Brazil) use roman numerals for centuries.
  - hw8kw13 4y ago
    I’m not entirely sure, but my guess is that it’s shorthand for 21st century.
Linda703 4y ago
[dead]
kelseyfrog 4y ago
Normally you can't broadly stop someone from being able to send you mail. However, there is a loophole. You can file a PS Form 1500[1] and say that the advertisement you received from them made you horny[2]. No questions asked prohibitory order. 1. https://about.usps.com/forms/ps1500.pdf https://about.usps.com/forms/ps1500.pdf 2. https://about.usps.com/publications/pub307/welcome.htm https://about.usps.com/publications/pub307/welcome.htm
- plushpuffin 4y ago
  Anything sent to "Current Resident" can't be blocked by a Form 1500. I've tried. They say that since it doesn't have my name on it, it's not actually meant for me specifically so any prohibitory order I try to file will be rejected.
- artificialLimbs 4y ago
  Comments like this are why I read hackernews. I'm going to be very horny this month, apparently.
  - 404mm 4y ago
    Exactly my thoughts! I saw a seemingly boring headline but opened it anyway expecting gold. I was not disappointed.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  Postal services have funny laws that are often way more serious than you'd think - I'd worry that by lying on a form like this you're committing a much more severe crime than you realise.
  - dilyevsky 4y ago
    Who said anything about lying?
  - 4y ago
parker01011001 4y ago
I get an insane amount of junk mail in my building, it's a shame. Security ended up creating a junk mail box we can dump stuff in as soon as it arrives.
PebblesHD 4y ago
In Australia, thankfully this is as straightforward as a sticker on your mailbox with ‘No Junk Mail’ and/or ‘No Unaddressed Mail’. Since installing one if those stickers, the amount of waste coming from my mailbox has dropped off probably 90%, with the only unwanted letters now coming from politicians who pull my name and address from the electoral roll to mail out their campaign stuff.
- chii 4y ago
  how is that junk mail enforced? Do the post office check that the mail isn't junk first? Or is it just a placebo effect?
  - PebblesHD 4y ago
    Two different ways, most junk mail sent via the post office is unaddressed, and so it is in legislation that these are not to be delivered to houses with the stickers. The other is the usual paper boy who has been given a bundle to distribute, these are partially on the honour system, but there is a complaints system for companies that ignore them.
Nextgrid 4y ago
A better solution could be to get a PO box from a company that can open & scan your mail and use that address for anything important. Then you don't need to care about your physical mailbox and can let it fill up forever.
tzs 4y ago
Anyone here besides me who finds some of the unsolicited postal mailings useful? A Valpak [1] mailing had a coupon for $500 off from the roofing company I had already decided to use for my new roof. They usually have coupons for several other things I occasionally need, like oil changes, garage door maintenance, and food. Burger King, Wendy's, and Arby's mail something every few weeks with coupons that usually include a few I find useful. The stuff I don't find useful doesn't come in sufficient volume to be too annoying. The walk back from the mailbox and up my driveway is 100 ft (30 meters) which gives me plenty of time to look through the mail and separate out the the useless stuff by the time I reach my recycle bin which is at the end of that walk. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valpak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valpak
- throwaway894345 4y ago
  I’ve never found anything useful in 15 years of living on my own.
- saxonww 4y ago
  The roofer is one thing, but I wonder how much Burger King, Wendy's, and Arby's might be able to reduce the cost of their food if they weren't spending money shipping paper to everyone's house all the time. I guess a lot of people use coupons. But I wonder how much money is actually spent running these campaigns, and how much of the paper ends up just being tossed. I don't even open the flyers, they go straight to the trash.
  - taurath 4y ago
    They’re not interested in reducing the cost of their food though, they just want to charge the most that enough people will pay. They keep advertising and couponing because they test areas they advertise and don’t and measure the difference, and it costs less to advertise than they gain in sales
- kylehotchkiss 4y ago
  Is that leafy paper even recyclable? I used to start the fireplace with it and it melted more than burned
miked85 4y ago
I really wish I could just end USPS mail entirely. 99.9% of my mail is junk, the small percentage that isn't is something I'm already aware of via email. I've tried stopping junk via this site before, it didn't seem to change anything.
- kube-system 4y ago
  Mail is still an important service to be able to contact someone at a physical location
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- 0des 4y ago
  You can end your mail service, I've called and asked about it for this exact reason. After the world's most resistance, shock, and awe, and a level of escalation, I was eventually told that yes this is possible but that nobody had ever done it.
  - betwixthewires 4y ago
    So how do you do it?
nemo44x 4y ago
I love junk mail. Sometimes there’s a coupon worth a fortune!
ck2 4y ago
This won't stop the local ads the delivery person is required to put into every box. There should be a legal way to mark your box (on the inside etc) that advertisements aren't allowed. But who are we kidding, this entire country was built on abusing every possible ad space except the backs of the congresspeople. If ads are allowed under "free speech" then forced eyeballs are not a valid method, it has to be contracted and your mailbox is not a contract with sellers. Just like that TV you bought has no right to show you ads without consent.
0des 4y ago
I keep getting "Error: Credit card expiration date is invalid."
e_i_pi_2 4y ago
I never understood why you're allowed to just send as much mail as you want to people that didn't ask for it. The particularly egregious letters are labelled as important and with time sensitive information. We already have rules about how things need to be labeled and packaged to be shipped, so I think it could also be useful to have some system around colors or labels to clearly distinguish actually important or personal mail from marketing
eclipticplane 4y ago
Somewhere in some database, my house is listed as a 12 unit apartment building. I've begged my postal delivery people, the local office, and the regional office to stop, block, or otherwise stop. I've contacted the companies sending the mail begging for them to tell me where they bought my info -- not because I'm upset they bought it, but to find out which database it is. There are no apartments. It's just a house. But almost every day of the week I get 12+ copies of something. Catalogs are the worst since they don't even fit in the mailbox. The postal carrier just drops them on the ground wrapped in a plastic bag. The fun part is that I can calculate a spoilage rate of the mail. In any day, there's usually 1 random apartment number missing from the stack of 12.
- craz8 4y ago
  I have a doppelgänger address that causes trouble (US addresses can have N, S, W, and other compass modifiers that are critical to accuracy). Fedex is the worst, as they have a manual override that mostly, but not always, catches the address and reroutes to the correct truck Other delivery places get mixed up too - the handoff between restaurant online purchase systems and the delivery company (usually Doordash recently) is clearly broken, and shared between many restaurants. That one can send them to an address that actually doesn’t exist at all and maps to the middle of an intersection. But now we know well the family that gets many of our misrouted packages. I have no idea which common database needs to be updated to get this fixed - USPS is no help here
rtpg 4y ago
In Japan and France, at least, people sometimes put stickers on their mailboxes: "no ads". It works pretty well, but I wonder if that does anything for the USPS.
progre 4y ago
The equivalent for Swedish residents: https://www.statenspersonadressregister.se/master/start/dina-personuppgifter/reklamsparr/formular-for-reklamsparr/ https://www.statenspersonadressregister.se/master/start/dina... Free and permanent unless you opt in again.
betwixthewires 4y ago
I just stopped checking my mail. I don't need it. Who needs it anymore? I get all of my bills via email, I can be contacted by anyone who wants to get a hold of me in very easy ways like email and phone, and the only thing I get delivered are packages, usually I get notified when they arrive. I just don't see a reason to go check for mail, the only things I'm getting are junk.
jrace 4y ago
For us Canadians you can “opt-out” by just putting a note in/on your mailbox. The carriers will/should honor that.
lk888 4y ago
Most junk mails don't bother me. A lot of them are just neighborhood businesses. But, some are clearly mistakes. Such as my own credit card company keep inviting me to apply for a card I already have. I also think the bulk mail rate should be higher so businesses will be more careful when doing direct mails.
joecool1029 4y ago
In my case I did the credit card opt-out and then targeted the two worst offenders (Comcast and Chase). I believe Comcast I was able to opt-out both my house and PO Box from their endless stream of junk, Chase was harder had to actually call them but was successful in removing all my addresses from getting their checking account offers. (the optoutprescreen only seems to stop credit offers, not all banking product offers). I don't want to opt-out DMA opt-out because there's a couple monthly advertiser services that do send useful stuff. The remaining worst offender I can't get rid of so far is Andersen Windows & Doors. The mail started pretty banal, moved up to 'handwritten' estimates that looked like they were done with an autopen. The last few mailers look more like scribbles from an insane person. Pretty sure next will be notes wrapped to bricks thrown through my current windows.
- daniel-cussen 4y ago
  > Pretty sure next will be notes wrapped to bricks thrown through my current windows. Hew they do windows & doors you know!

366 points by user3939382 4y ago

As a matter of principle, I am not paying a $2 "processing fee" to stop people from sending garbage to my mailbox. Also, the permanent credit card offer opt-out requires me to print and send a letter from each address I live at. This is clearly designed to be as annoying as possible so nobody does it.

gaadd33 4y ago
1.6 cents per month seems pretty reasonable to solve what would otherwise just consume some of your time. An ideal world, there wouldn't be a processing fee but we don't live in that world. Aa far as the credit card opt out, you can also freeze your credit and I believe that has a similar impact since no one can make unauthorized inquiries.
- bozhark 4y ago
  You can mail the junk back to the sender at their own cost. If you make it cost too much to send to you, they stop on their own. It takes about 5-7 months
  - forrestbennett 4y ago
    How do you mail it back to sender at their cost?
    - IncRnd 4y ago
      Do not open it, and write "return to sender".
      - fortran77 4y ago
        This is untrue. For the cheapest classes of mail, (e.g., "bulk rate") it is not returned, it is discarded.
        IncRnd 4y ago
        It is true. I shred those bulk mailings, but I was referencing the many Junk but non-bulk class letters I receive. It makes no sense to write return to sender on a bulk-mailer. While much Junk mail is sent via bulk rate, Junk in this context refers to the content not to the mailing class of bulk.
    - bilalnpe 4y ago
      Some have a prepaid envelop for your response.
toomuchtodo 4y ago
I’ve done both and it was worth it. Highly recommended. One can also consider a mail processor if you’re nomadic or on the road often; you give out that address, pay $10-$20/month for the service, and they dispose of the junk mail and scan in only paper mail of importance for review. Edit: will return with mail processor recommendations when not mobile.
- bozhark 4y ago
  Any recommended country or US state specifically? Have a couple remote operations this would be useful for
  - lh7777 4y ago
    Not the OP, but I've been using St. Brendan's Isle[1] for about a year and it's been great. I've also heard good things about My RV Mail[2]. Both are in Florida, I think mostly because it's a popular state for full-time RVers to establish as their domicile -- no income tax, low vehicle licensing fees, etc. I looked at bigger name services like Anytime Mailbox and Earthclass Mail, but found a lot of complaints about reliability, hidden fees, etc. in the reviews. Many of these services contract with local businesses (like convenience stores and independent shipping shops) to actually receive your mail, so your experience could be great or terrible depending on the address you choose. St. Brendan's Isle and My RV Mail both handle all mail in-house. [1] https://www.sbimailservice.com/ https://www.sbimailservice.com/ [2] https://myrvmail.com/ https://myrvmail.com/
    - toomuchtodo 4y ago
      That is the one I recommend for personal mail and use, as you can establish domicile with them as you mention. Also, their address doesn’t throw any flags with brokerages and other financial services providers as a commercial mail processor.
- DividableMiddle 4y ago
  Any that you recommend or know of?
tablespoon 4y ago
> As a matter of principle, I am not paying a $2 "processing fee" to stop people from sending garbage to my mailbox. I feel like that must be relatively new. I swear I used that site and I'm pretty sure I didn't have to pay a fee. I bet they added it to discourage people from going through with the process.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  A $1 authorized charge would work for a little bit of "real person here" verification, but I'd imagine the $2 is to discourage auto-filling an entire town's worth of people via a script; all you'd need is, say, a voter registration list to get the necessary info of name and address.
  - bilalnpe 4y ago
    They could confirm the address you are requesting with the billing address on the card. This is what the '$1 authorized charge' is for when you submit the address change/mail forwarding request.
    - ceejayoz 4y ago
      AVS chokes on apartment numbers pretty regularly.
    - hamburglar 4y ago
      I get shit loads of junk mail at my second address, which is not the billing address for my credit cards. They have to have a way to deal with that too.
ceejayoz 4y ago
I kinda love that they're offering PayPal Credit as a payment option. A six month loan for a $2 purchase?
- bozhark 4y ago
  How much of a credit boost does $0.33/month give you?
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    Under the hood, it's a credit card; you'll get a credit line much larger than the $2. How it impacts your credit depends quite a bit on how many other accounts you have, and for how long; a thin, short credit file will be more heavily impacted by a new account.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
zikduruqe 4y ago
I paid my $2 processing fee two years ago, and I now seldom get any junk mail period. Best $2 I have spent in my life.

thenerdhead 4y ago

I was looking for this website again for junk mail. It looked so sketchy the first time, but I’m gonna bite the bullet and see if this saves me time over the next ten years from having to throw away junk mail. $2 is worth the experiment.

jrockway 4y ago
I did this many years ago. 99.9% of my mail is still junk, just junk where I have some sort of weaselly pre-existing relationship with the company sending mail. ("You donated money to us! Can we have some more!? We spent it all on this marketing campaign and now it's gone!")
- rinze 4y ago
  This used to happen to me (in Montreal, so perhaps not the same as your experience) with SPCA. I emailed them and told them very politely that I donate on my own schedule, that I appreciate the work they do, and to please stop wasting their (my) money asking me for more donations. They replied thanking me for the e-mail and saying that they had removed me from their mailing list.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  This is why I stopped donating to KQED.
- knodi123 4y ago
  Any online order or phone order is an automatic opt-in to their catalog. I used to let my wife handle her own mail and I handled mine, but it got so out of control that I saved all her garbage for 1 month and showed it to her, and now I'm allowed to opt her out of everything. Took a few months but we finally got it down to the bare minimum. It's nice. If I miss a day or two of checking my mailbox, it doesn't overflow!
- thenerdhead 4y ago
  Do you still get the traditional junk mail though? I heard this trick specifically from a postman at USPS and decided to act again given I found the link again.

anonymousisme 4y ago

I've done this and it makes a big difference, but I still get a lot of junk from local businesses. Either those businesses are not part of the DMA, or they are ignoring the opt-out list. I'm not sure what to do about it.

btrettel 4y ago
I've done this as well. Another issue I've noticed is that when a certain item is set to go to "all" addresses, the mail carrier will simply give one to everyone until they run out. This is probably right most of the time. But I would consistently get junk mail for my neighbor with an apartment number one higher than mine. I recall reporting this to the USPS multiple times without any effect. The only thing that helped was putting a note inside my mailbox to check for my neighbor's mail.
yojo 4y ago
I just Google the business and email them. Usually they're able to take me off their mailing list. Also as I recall, there was a coupon mailer that did not participate in the DMA. The flyers show up with branding from Vericast/Save/Valassis. The opt out for them is here: https://www.save.com/mailing/delivery-options https://www.save.com/mailing/delivery-options Similarly I recently moved houses and got a ton of catalogs to the former owner. It was a PITA to get sorted out, but after a couple months of diligent removal requests my mail is mostly stuff I care about.
- b3morales 4y ago
  I wish there was some equivalent of credit card chargebacks for USPS bulk mail. If I mark the mailpiece as being to someone not at the address, the USPS would bill the company for the failed delivery. (Also the "Or Current Resident" loophole is ridiculous.) Then this would be the organization's problem to keep their own lists up to date. I realize this is probably infeasible but it would be nice.
7speter 4y ago
From what I understand, local businesses can make an arrangement to send out mass mailers at a bulk price with their local post office. Maybe you see it as junk but I can see why being aware of whats available as far as the local economy (while helping keep the post office afloat) may make those mass mailers (assuming I’m making the right connections) “not junk.” Jmo though

thrill 4y ago

Probably works just as well as the do not call list.

user3939382 4y ago
I’ve been doing it for years and it works. I get almost 0 junk mail. The 2-3 per year that slip through I contact and ask them to remove me.

ghaff 4y ago

Honestly, it used to be far more of an issue when going away for more than one or two weeks at some times of the year resulted in a mailbox full of stuff--meaning you really had to get your mail held. These days I find far fewer catalogs--and certainly thick catalogs--get sent. I did get a larger mailbox, mostly for packages. And I still get a fairly high junk to organizations I do business with to actually important mail ratio. But I can mostly ignore my mailbox for a week at a time easily.

rdxm 4y ago

shipman05 4y ago

I've done this, but most of the junk mail I get is from previous residents of my home, even though I've lived at my present address for over 3 years now. I've called some of the frequent mailers and had some success. Others have impossible to find contact info. I've talked to my letter carriers, and it will get better for a few weeks and then be back to normal. I'd say I get 3x the mail for previous resident than I do for myself. It's frustrating. Would be great if USPS just had a form I could fill out that automatically stopped delivery for certain names (and gave that info back to the mailers so they could stop generating the waste).

camhenlin 4y ago
Go do a change of address on the USPS website for the previous residents. Costs a dollar or so per last name
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  Only lasts a year, though.
  - kshacker 4y ago
    Maybe setup mail hold for however long they allow, then sort it just once that time period (maybe once per quarter)?
  - dwater 4y ago
    Yes but it also adds an entry to a mail list update dataset that USPS sends out. I worked at a company that had a magazine and every month USPS would send a CD with an updater. I never looked into how the technology worked but it allowed a sender to auto update their database to the new address.
- Mindless2112 4y ago
  Per the form: > The person who prepares this form states that he or she is the person, executor, guardian, authorized officer, or agent of the person for whom mail would be forwarded under this order. Anyone submitting false or inaccurate information on this form is subject to punishment by fine or imprisonment or both under Sections 2, 1001, 1702, and 1708 of Title 18, United States Code.

DangitBobby 4y ago

If the USPS offered a subscription service where they throw trash away instead of stuffing it into my mailbox, I would pay it with a smile on my face. I don't even care that it probably meets the definition of a protection racket.

alar44 4y ago
The tradeoff is that you can mail anything anywhere in days for extremely cheap. Mail is cheap because of spam mail.
- DangitBobby 4y ago
  I don't mail anything. I've considered removing my mailbox altogether.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    While one can increasingly do a lot of things electronically, there are certainly documents that governments send that expect a valid mailing address. And may have legal consequences if you don't respond to them. I receive a number of local bills for example that I'm not aware of an electronic option.
    - DangitBobby 4y ago
      Yes, I also ultimately decided to keep the mailbox.
  - stevenjgarner 4y ago
    You cannot run an online business relying on location services (e.g. Google My Business) without a mailing address to send a verification post card. Many states also require a mailing address to send a driver license. Many countries require a mail address for an online national id (e.g. https://www.realme.govt.nz/ https://www.realme.govt.nz/ in New Zealand).
    - 4y ago

Ansil849 4y ago

> You can decide what types of mail you do and don’t want from marketers. Register at the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) consumer website DMAchoice.org, and choose what catalogs, magazine offers, and other mail you want to get. You’ll have to pay a $2 processing fee, and your registration will last for 10 years. Is it just me, or is it insanely fucked up that in order to reduce the amount of junk mail you have to 1) first provide your information to yet another third-party site, and 2) pay money. This is beyond backwards.

tdehnel 4y ago
You are already paying a lot more than that for the USPS. $2 extra to save myself hours of sorting through mail for the next 10 years is worth it.
- Ansil849 4y ago
  That's placing an awful lot of faith in this third-party website doing what it is intended to do, as opposed to other possibilities such as it not doing much of anything at all, or worse yet, exposing your data at some point. Instead, my approach whenever I receive junkmail is: 1) I write to the sender to request that all of my information be removed from their databases and that I did not consent to receiving any information from them. 2) I file a report with the Better Business Bureau: https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint 3) If they have a public-facing presence on a site like Google Reviews, Yelp, and so on, I leave a review detailing that this company sends out spam. 4) And most importantly, I keep a spreadsheet of companies that have sent me spam, and try to avoid ever giving them any of my money or labor.
  - orzig 4y ago
    First, thank you. I’m free riding in the positive pressure you’ve exerted. Does it work for you? Do they stop, and is it worth the time? Also, do you go through all four steps at the “first offense”? Rightly or not it’s considered business as usual to blanket a geographical area on occasion, so there are only a few places which are constant enough I’d actually consider myself vengeful instead of annoyed.

lvl102 4y ago

I had a PO box that I kept for my side business. Never really used it other than to have it as my address, but I received so much junk. I had to go in and clean it out every week. If I didn’t, I’d get notices from the post office. I finally asked them stop putting in all the junk in my mail box. They said, I’d have to call them individually to stop. That’s when I realized, the post office actually makes money from doing this so they have zero incentive to stop.

downrightmike 4y ago
Exact opposite for me, I use a pobox, because they won't put junk in there.

akelly 4y ago

Is there anything you can do for landline spam calls? Or spam texts? My family is inundated.

IgorPartola 4y ago
Pick up the phone and then immediately hang up. That will often times tell them that the line is dead. Pick up the phone and ask them to put you on a do not call list. Surprisingly that works for some of these. Pick up the phone and fuck with them. “911, what’s the location of your emergency” is my standard greeting no matter who calls me. Or tell them you are a Jehovah’s witness and as them if they’ve heard the good word. Tell them this is a cell phone and your state allows up to $$$ per phone call if you take them to small claims. This usually works well with asking their full name and the name of their company and the name of their supervisor.
- kshacker 4y ago
  This is what I have done (for car warranty): Want to get warranty for a horse carriage Want to get warranty for a 1930s Model T Want to get warranty for a future 2023 car Want to speak to Kate when the person calling is Cathy. No no no I really want to speak to Kate. Want to ask if they can call me at a specific time rather than random so that I know it is them Max talk time has been 10 seconds. I wish I had the skills to prolong the call.
  - bilalnpe 4y ago
    >I wish I had the skills to prolong the call. You could start by giving them more realistic car details. I engaged them one time when I got really annoyed. Gave fake car details (but realistic), call back number of local McDonalds, and then kept asking for details about the coverage. I eventually declined it and the sales agent got super pushy with scare tactics so I hung up.
ceejayoz 4y ago
Complain to your Congressional representatives. There's action being taken, but it's slow; a big provision kicks in at the end of this month. https://www.fcc.gov/spoofed-robocalls https://www.fcc.gov/spoofed-robocalls > Caller ID authentication is critical for protecting consumers against spoofed robocalls where scammers mask their identity, harass consumers, and seek to defraud vulnerable communities. Caller ID authentication, based on so-called STIR/SHAKEN standards, provides a common information sharing language between networks to verify caller ID information which can be used by robocall blocking tools, FCC investigators, and by consumers trying to judge if an incoming call is likely legitimate or not. On June 30, 2021, the FCC confirmed that all the largest voice service providers had implemented these standards in the IP sections of their networks, in accordance with the FCC’s deadline. While some small carriers were afforded an extension of this deadline, Chairwoman Rosenworcel shortened the amount of time afforded to a subset of small voice service providers based on evidence that they were originating an increasing quantity of illegal robocalls. Thus, small voice service providers that are not facilities-based must implement STIR/SHAKEN in the IP portions of their networks no later than June 30, 2022. That "small voice service providers" loophole is what's currently abused; a few of them have found being lax on spam detection means they can rake in fees for a while. https://epic.org/documents/scam-robocalls-telecom-providers-profit/ https://epic.org/documents/scam-robocalls-telecom-providers-... > Every answered scam robocall pays money to those providers, as well as to every telephone service provider in the call path. Even when these providers are told—sometimes repeatedly—that they are transmitting fraudulent calls, they keep doing it, because they are making money from these calls.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dehrmann 4y ago

Suppose I move and have a new address. Is there any way to stop new mail? Catalogs are easy enough to stop. I'm thinking things like political mailers. It's almost like you need to keep your name out of public records (DMV, voter registration, property title) to avoid them.

zbird 4y ago

i_am_proteus 4y ago

Junk mail can be refused. https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remove-name-from-mailing-lists https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remo... Send it back to them. Make it their problem.

aldebran 4y ago
My post person wrote “you can’t just decline mail” and dropped it back in my mailbox. I did write “return to sender” on it. I even tried writing “return to sender. Declined by receiver”. I wrote to the postmaster general. Nothing came of it.
- mkeedlinger 4y ago
  (Note, I get really petty about this stuff) My solution is like said above: return it to sender. If your post person is trying to keep it your problem, make it USPS' problem: when returning to sender put it in a postbox that your post person can't gate-keep. I've personally had pretty good success with this, albeit it does require consistent effort for a while.
  - lostcolony 4y ago
    Yeah; put it in a post box, period. If they have a personal (outgoing) mailbox that they are putting just the one piece of mail into, the mail person can skim over it, see the marker, and make decisions. If it's a post box that is filled with a bunch of people's outgoing mail, no postal worker is going to read over it that way. Further, if you've blacked out the 'to' address with a marker (as I do), and written 'Return to Sender', they then are faced with either returning it to sender...or treating it as a dead letter that is undeliverable. They won't do the latter if there is a sender they can return it to, ergo...back it goes.
    - aldebran 4y ago
      Yeah this is a good idea. Going to drop it off at a friends outbox.

aldebran 4y ago

I’ve done all of this multiple times. It got better for a couple of months and then started again. The same senders. Real estate agents, coupons, houseware ads… I’ve even written “return to sender” and my post person wrote “you can’t just decline mail” and dropped it back in my mailbox. I’m so sick of this.

user3939382 4y ago
Wrong. “Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), Sect. 604.8.1.2 and Sect. 507.1.8.2 provide two instances where mail can be refused when it is offered for delivery, or, after delivery. You may mark “Refused” and return it unopened within a reasonable time.” https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remove-name-from-mailing-lists https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remo...
- aldebran 4y ago
  I’m going to get real petty about this. Thanks for sharing!
  - encryptluks2 4y ago
    I tried getting petty and submitting complaints to Postmaster General. Eventually they told me if I kept refusing mail, especially the Direct Mail that advertisers use (to Current Resident), they just wouldn't deliver my mail anymore.

joshe 4y ago

Another fun thing you can do is return all prepaid response envelopes empty, to increase the cost of the advertising. Marketing mail for the USPS is $13.9 billion of their total revenue of $73.1 billion. (19% of total revenue). The USPS could easily provide a form that let you opt out of all bulk marketing mail. https://qz.com/emails/quartz-obsession/2062562/junk-mail/ https://qz.com/emails/quartz-obsession/2062562/junk-mail/

icelancer 4y ago
Wow that's... a really simple solution. Never thought to just drop the empty envelopes in the mail. Definitely going to start doing that.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  Better yet, fill with glitter first.
  - arthurcolle 4y ago
    I don't think encouraging people to engage in domestic terrorism is a good approach, although as a response to bulk spammers... maybe?
    - omginternets 4y ago
      You have a very different definition of “terrorism” than the rest of us.
      - arthurcolle 4y ago
        It was a joke, old sport
        omginternets 4y ago
        The delivery needs work, friend ;)

Stratoscope 4y ago

I don't care much about junk mail in envelopes. I don't get that much, and it's easy to toss. What I do care about are those !@#$%^&* newsprint bulk ads that I get every few days. I have allergies, and I play harmonica, so my hands are often close to my face. If I just touch that stack of newsprint long enough to toss it in the recycle bin, my hands stink after that. I have to use a combination of soap and isopropyl to get even a fraction of the smell out. I realize that the USPS makes money delivering those newsprint ads. Whatever they make, I would gladly pay twice that or more to never get one again. Does anyone know if the DMAchoice thing would stop the newsprint ads? I have a feeling it wouldn't, but would be delighted to be wrong about this.

gdulli 4y ago
I opted out of those and they stopped coming. Mine came with opt out instructions I assume because of a law, so yours probably do too.

zephrx1111 4y ago

I don’t see the point of giving up more personal privacy, just to beg some org that we have no control, for some mercy that they may take back anytime they want. Are we encouraging them to send us more junk whatever, and then charge us more for their spareness? Is there really end of this game, if the rule is in their hands?

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annoyingnoob 4y ago

You cannot optout of USPS services like Every Door Delivery Mail. https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm

spike021 4y ago

I wish there were a way to list all previous inhabitants of my apartment address who still get mail sent here and somehow tell USPS "no, they no longer live here". I routinely, in both of my previous apartments, receive(d) mail for at least 3-5 people who lived here before me. Many of them important documents, like from the DMV. Yes I know I can "mark" them with a pen/sharpie as having moved, but I don't always bring a pen to my mailbox with me to do that with. There must be an easier way.

LegitShady 4y ago
I take the effort of marking them "return to sender" and throwing them in a mailbox for outbound mail. I don't know if they actually get sent back, but my hope is that if the important mail gets sent back the org that sent it will try and find their new address.
- heretogetout 4y ago
  I've been tempted to buy a rubber stamp with "return to sender" or "not at this address" or whatever. I don't relish the thought of spending money to deal with other people's problems, though. In any case after a few years I just toss their mail in the trash, junk or otherwise. If they don't care to file change of address forms then I don't care either. I don't think this is technically legal, though.
- astrange 4y ago
  If it’s second class mail (has a long barcode on it) that does nothing, but it’s also safe to throw away.
  - colejohnson66 4y ago
    Isn’t throwing it away a federal crime?
    - astrange 4y ago
      They don't care about bulk mail, if you try to return it it'll just be destroyed anyway. If it's not addressed to you at all then you should probably return it of course.

cwillu 4y ago

“Sharing your Social Security number and date of birth is optional, but the website says that giving this information can help them ensure that they can successfully process your request. It says the information you give is confidential and will be used only to process your request to opt out.” “The website says”? How wonderful.

deleted 4y ago
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petemill 4y ago
It didn't even accept my social security number complaining that the number was too high...
- colejohnson66 4y ago
  Let me guess: it’s more than 2^31-1 or 2^32-1 if converted to a binary number?

sumthinprofound 4y ago

Years ago I completed the permanent opt-out for everyone in my household (needing to mail in a paper form is shameful). However, very few unsolicited junk mails since. For any that get through I call that company's support line and request removal. Works ~90% of the time. One cool free feature the USPS does offer is Informed Delivery [0]: Every morning around 7am I get an email from the postal service with scanned images of all the mail (face of the envelope) I'm receiving that day. [0] https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.acti...

malandrew 4y ago
I have mixed feelings about unformed delivery as I don’t think government should have scanned copies of all the mail you get. It’s as personal as when we decided that your video rental history was. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act
- homero 4y ago
  They scanned them before then to route them.
  - propogandist 4y ago
    likely transactional data to sustain operations vs retaining the information, which may only happen after opting into the informed delivery service.
    - krsrhe 4y ago
- crayboff 4y ago
  They scan all mail already, that's how it gets routed to each home. Informed delivery just has them email you those images they are already taking. Also in case you were thinking it, they don't open the boxes/letters. It's just the front of it

VWWHFSfQ 4y ago

> Thank you! > The following is a confirmation of your Opt-Out request. > In order to complete your Permanent Opt-Out election, you must print and mail the Permanent Opt-Out Election form. what was the fucking point of this Edit: my opt-out was for 5 years. The "Permanent" opt-out requires mailing them. lol USPS is completely overrun by garbage mail.

criddell 4y ago

Ever since the Seinfeld episode where Kramer decides he's going to opt out of mail after receiving too many catalogs I've wondered why you can't do that.

antiframe 4y ago
Governments will contact you primarily via the USPS. The IRS, the local court, etc. Also, it's a viable method of serving a suit. If you could opt out of USPS delivery you lose a pretty secure and reliable channel of official communication. It would be nice to opt out of all bulk mail and non-first-class mail, etc though.
- criddell 4y ago
  Well, you can opt out of mail, but that usually means opting out of living in a building that you own or rent. I'm thinking specifically of people who live on a boat or in an RV year round.

MiddleEndian 4y ago

I decided to stop checking my mail for three months to see what would happen. Eventually, they just put a little thing in my mailbox indicating that all mail would be returned to sender. That was fine with me until my family kept telling me they couldn't send me cards and such, so I went and resolved it with the post office. If not for that, I'd be completely mail-free in my home. EDIT: I do get substantially less junkmail now though, so some of these organizations may have come to the conclusion I no longer live here.

asdff 4y ago
My mailperson wrote on a scrap of junkmail in sharpie to start checking my mail more
- MiddleEndian 4y ago
  All of my very necessary™ professional™ mail goes to my PO box, which I also don't check very often. Did you end up checking your mail more often?
betwixthewires 4y ago
I haven't checked my mail in 2 years. Its great.
- chrononaut 4y ago
  What do you do about jury duty notifications? (If you live in the US)
  - stjohnswarts 4y ago
    It would get returned to sender and I guess they'd assume you are no longer there? They can't do anything if you never received notice.

nerdbaggy 4y ago

Here is the link to opt out of credit card offers. https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

mutant 4y ago

I've tried this several times, hasn't worked once.

amingilani 4y ago

For Canada Post[0]: To stop getting unaddressed advertising, simply put a note on your mailbox stating that you do not wish to receive Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail™. Place the note in or on your mailbox, or on the inside lip of your community mailbox, group mailbox or postal box. [0](https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/kb/receiving/mail-delivery/how-to-stop-receiving-advertising-mail https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/kb/rec...)

lh7777 4y ago

On a related note, I've been using Catalog Choice[1] for years to unsubscribe from unwanted catalogs (which for me is all of them). It's free and I find it's quicker and easier than figuring out how each company's opt-out process works. [1] https://www.catalogchoice.org/ https://www.catalogchoice.org/

Aspos 4y ago

There should be DNS for paper mail. Telling everyone where I live just to receive mail sounds insane in XXI. I wish I could get a permanent address such as myname@usps.com and get paper mail directed as needed every time I move. Allowing people redirect paper mail to spam could save USPS billions.

chii 4y ago
> There should be DNS for paper mail. is that what a PO box is for? You can give out your PO box instead of an address. unfortunately, the mailing address is sometime (ab)used by parties that also want your real address.
- mauvehaus 4y ago
  PO Boxes are tied to specific post offices and/or ZIP codes. There are almost certainly hundreds of not thousands of addresses that are PO Box 271 in the USA. What GP wants AIUI is a single mailable id that can be mapped to any delivery point in the area that the USPS serves.
hawaiianbrah 4y ago
What is XXI?
- shukantpal 4y ago
  Cringe way to say 21st century
  - maleldil 4y ago
    Not necessarily cringe. Some countries (eg Brazil) use roman numerals for centuries.
- hw8kw13 4y ago
  I’m not entirely sure, but my guess is that it’s shorthand for 21st century.

Linda703 4y ago

[dead]

kelseyfrog 4y ago

Normally you can't broadly stop someone from being able to send you mail. However, there is a loophole. You can file a PS Form 1500[1] and say that the advertisement you received from them made you horny[2]. No questions asked prohibitory order. 1. https://about.usps.com/forms/ps1500.pdf https://about.usps.com/forms/ps1500.pdf 2. https://about.usps.com/publications/pub307/welcome.htm https://about.usps.com/publications/pub307/welcome.htm

plushpuffin 4y ago
Anything sent to "Current Resident" can't be blocked by a Form 1500. I've tried. They say that since it doesn't have my name on it, it's not actually meant for me specifically so any prohibitory order I try to file will be rejected.
artificialLimbs 4y ago
Comments like this are why I read hackernews. I'm going to be very horny this month, apparently.
- 404mm 4y ago
  Exactly my thoughts! I saw a seemingly boring headline but opened it anyway expecting gold. I was not disappointed.
deleted 4y ago
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chrisseaton 4y ago
Postal services have funny laws that are often way more serious than you'd think - I'd worry that by lying on a form like this you're committing a much more severe crime than you realise.
- dilyevsky 4y ago
  Who said anything about lying?
- 4y ago

parker01011001 4y ago

I get an insane amount of junk mail in my building, it's a shame. Security ended up creating a junk mail box we can dump stuff in as soon as it arrives.

PebblesHD 4y ago

In Australia, thankfully this is as straightforward as a sticker on your mailbox with ‘No Junk Mail’ and/or ‘No Unaddressed Mail’. Since installing one if those stickers, the amount of waste coming from my mailbox has dropped off probably 90%, with the only unwanted letters now coming from politicians who pull my name and address from the electoral roll to mail out their campaign stuff.

chii 4y ago
how is that junk mail enforced? Do the post office check that the mail isn't junk first? Or is it just a placebo effect?
- PebblesHD 4y ago
  Two different ways, most junk mail sent via the post office is unaddressed, and so it is in legislation that these are not to be delivered to houses with the stickers. The other is the usual paper boy who has been given a bundle to distribute, these are partially on the honour system, but there is a complaints system for companies that ignore them.

Nextgrid 4y ago

A better solution could be to get a PO box from a company that can open & scan your mail and use that address for anything important. Then you don't need to care about your physical mailbox and can let it fill up forever.

tzs 4y ago

Anyone here besides me who finds some of the unsolicited postal mailings useful? A Valpak [1] mailing had a coupon for $500 off from the roofing company I had already decided to use for my new roof. They usually have coupons for several other things I occasionally need, like oil changes, garage door maintenance, and food. Burger King, Wendy's, and Arby's mail something every few weeks with coupons that usually include a few I find useful. The stuff I don't find useful doesn't come in sufficient volume to be too annoying. The walk back from the mailbox and up my driveway is 100 ft (30 meters) which gives me plenty of time to look through the mail and separate out the the useless stuff by the time I reach my recycle bin which is at the end of that walk. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valpak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valpak

throwaway894345 4y ago
I’ve never found anything useful in 15 years of living on my own.
saxonww 4y ago
The roofer is one thing, but I wonder how much Burger King, Wendy's, and Arby's might be able to reduce the cost of their food if they weren't spending money shipping paper to everyone's house all the time. I guess a lot of people use coupons. But I wonder how much money is actually spent running these campaigns, and how much of the paper ends up just being tossed. I don't even open the flyers, they go straight to the trash.
- taurath 4y ago
  They’re not interested in reducing the cost of their food though, they just want to charge the most that enough people will pay. They keep advertising and couponing because they test areas they advertise and don’t and measure the difference, and it costs less to advertise than they gain in sales
kylehotchkiss 4y ago
Is that leafy paper even recyclable? I used to start the fireplace with it and it melted more than burned

miked85 4y ago

I really wish I could just end USPS mail entirely. 99.9% of my mail is junk, the small percentage that isn't is something I'm already aware of via email. I've tried stopping junk via this site before, it didn't seem to change anything.

kube-system 4y ago
Mail is still an important service to be able to contact someone at a physical location
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
0des 4y ago
You can end your mail service, I've called and asked about it for this exact reason. After the world's most resistance, shock, and awe, and a level of escalation, I was eventually told that yes this is possible but that nobody had ever done it.
- betwixthewires 4y ago
  So how do you do it?

nemo44x 4y ago

I love junk mail. Sometimes there’s a coupon worth a fortune!

ck2 4y ago

This won't stop the local ads the delivery person is required to put into every box. There should be a legal way to mark your box (on the inside etc) that advertisements aren't allowed. But who are we kidding, this entire country was built on abusing every possible ad space except the backs of the congresspeople. If ads are allowed under "free speech" then forced eyeballs are not a valid method, it has to be contracted and your mailbox is not a contract with sellers. Just like that TV you bought has no right to show you ads without consent.

0des 4y ago

I keep getting "Error: Credit card expiration date is invalid."

e_i_pi_2 4y ago

I never understood why you're allowed to just send as much mail as you want to people that didn't ask for it. The particularly egregious letters are labelled as important and with time sensitive information. We already have rules about how things need to be labeled and packaged to be shipped, so I think it could also be useful to have some system around colors or labels to clearly distinguish actually important or personal mail from marketing

eclipticplane 4y ago

Somewhere in some database, my house is listed as a 12 unit apartment building. I've begged my postal delivery people, the local office, and the regional office to stop, block, or otherwise stop. I've contacted the companies sending the mail begging for them to tell me where they bought my info -- not because I'm upset they bought it, but to find out which database it is. There are no apartments. It's just a house. But almost every day of the week I get 12+ copies of something. Catalogs are the worst since they don't even fit in the mailbox. The postal carrier just drops them on the ground wrapped in a plastic bag. The fun part is that I can calculate a spoilage rate of the mail. In any day, there's usually 1 random apartment number missing from the stack of 12.

craz8 4y ago
I have a doppelgänger address that causes trouble (US addresses can have N, S, W, and other compass modifiers that are critical to accuracy). Fedex is the worst, as they have a manual override that mostly, but not always, catches the address and reroutes to the correct truck Other delivery places get mixed up too - the handoff between restaurant online purchase systems and the delivery company (usually Doordash recently) is clearly broken, and shared between many restaurants. That one can send them to an address that actually doesn’t exist at all and maps to the middle of an intersection. But now we know well the family that gets many of our misrouted packages. I have no idea which common database needs to be updated to get this fixed - USPS is no help here

rtpg 4y ago

In Japan and France, at least, people sometimes put stickers on their mailboxes: "no ads". It works pretty well, but I wonder if that does anything for the USPS.

progre 4y ago

The equivalent for Swedish residents: https://www.statenspersonadressregister.se/master/start/dina-personuppgifter/reklamsparr/formular-for-reklamsparr/ https://www.statenspersonadressregister.se/master/start/dina... Free and permanent unless you opt in again.

betwixthewires 4y ago

I just stopped checking my mail. I don't need it. Who needs it anymore? I get all of my bills via email, I can be contacted by anyone who wants to get a hold of me in very easy ways like email and phone, and the only thing I get delivered are packages, usually I get notified when they arrive. I just don't see a reason to go check for mail, the only things I'm getting are junk.

jrace 4y ago

For us Canadians you can “opt-out” by just putting a note in/on your mailbox. The carriers will/should honor that.

lk888 4y ago

Most junk mails don't bother me. A lot of them are just neighborhood businesses. But, some are clearly mistakes. Such as my own credit card company keep inviting me to apply for a card I already have. I also think the bulk mail rate should be higher so businesses will be more careful when doing direct mails.

joecool1029 4y ago

In my case I did the credit card opt-out and then targeted the two worst offenders (Comcast and Chase). I believe Comcast I was able to opt-out both my house and PO Box from their endless stream of junk, Chase was harder had to actually call them but was successful in removing all my addresses from getting their checking account offers. (the optoutprescreen only seems to stop credit offers, not all banking product offers). I don't want to opt-out DMA opt-out because there's a couple monthly advertiser services that do send useful stuff. The remaining worst offender I can't get rid of so far is Andersen Windows & Doors. The mail started pretty banal, moved up to 'handwritten' estimates that looked like they were done with an autopen. The last few mailers look more like scribbles from an insane person. Pretty sure next will be notes wrapped to bricks thrown through my current windows.

daniel-cussen 4y ago
> Pretty sure next will be notes wrapped to bricks thrown through my current windows. Hew they do windows & doors you know!