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Get Off Those
Sucker Lists
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You can avoid junk
mail and marketing calls if you just take a few steps. |
Tele-marketing calls can be downright annoying. All those sales pitches
and recorded messages, not to mention the dreaded "click" of
a marketer deciding to talk to someone else after dialing your number,
can interrupt our daily lives.
Direct mail is an interesting phenomenon that helps America work! Thousands
of graphic artists and writers create this stuff. They kill millions of
trees printing it. The US Post Office spends millions of dollars to get
it to your home. Then you pay taxes to have it hauled away for recycling
or burial. It's quite a system!
Direct marketing must work because people continue to buy from strangers.
If you are not one of the minority that enjoys direct marketing pitches
the law permits you to "opt out" of marketing offers. Shortly
after we opted out our volume of unsolicited mail and phone calls dropped
to almost nothing.
- Register with the Federal
Trade Commission's "Do Not Call" list. Your phone
number(s) will remain on the list for five years unless you remove
them.
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- Send in the "opt-out" forms that come with your monthly
bills. Some companies allow opting out of receiving "special
offers" via phone or the Internet.
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- Never reply to unsolicited e-mail ("spam"). A reply
simply confirms that your e-mail address is valid. If you signed
up for a mailing list then it is safe to opt out but beware:
Many clever spammers try to trick you into thinking you opted
in to their list when in fact you never did. See our spam pages to learn more.
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- Tell the national credit bureaus that you want to opt-out of
all pre-approved credit offers with just one phone call.
Call 888-5-OPTOUT (888-567-8688).
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- If you wish to check your credit report for possible fraud, you are now entitled to one free report from each of the major credit reporting agencies every year. To obtain your reports visit the address below. Highlight this address with the mouse and copy it to the Web Browser, or type it in manually. The site does not accept referrals from other Websites.
http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com
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- Be sure to check out our Internet
Advertising section to learn more about protecting yourself
from viruses, spyware, and "ad-bots". You may have unwittingly
consented to sending information to the marketers so they can
target you with yet more advertising. You may have also unwittingly
consented to let them sell the spare horsepower in your computer
to others.
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Visit the privacy
page on the Federal
Trade Commission privacy page Web site. You will find a
wealth of information that can help cut your junk mail and marketing
calls to almost nothing!
- Opt-out of credit
card offers.
- Sample opt-out letter.
- Learn about your driver's license and your privacy.
- Link to the Direct Marketing Association (see below)
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Write to the Direct Marketing Association every few years asking
to be removed from their mailing and calling lists. Click on the
links below for more information.
Direct Marketing Association
Mail
Preference Service
Box 9008
Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008 |
Direct Marketing Association
Telephone
Preference Service
Box 9014
Farmingdale, NY 11735-9014 |
Direct Marketing Association
E-mail
Preference Service |
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Tired of being on everyone's sucker list? JunkBusters
can help you master self-defense against privacy-invading marketing.
Learn how to avoid spam, telemarketing calls, junk mail, and the like. |
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Obviously.Com
has assembled some useful information for avoiding junk mail, both
the snail-mail and e-mail varieties. For example, you can opt-out
of many major mailings:
Publisher's
Clearing House
800-645-9242 voice
800-453-0272 fax |
ADVO
Missing children
860-285-6100 |
America OnLine
Stop sending those discs!
800-827-6364 |
Val-Pak
Coupon collections
508-626-9925 |
American Family Sweepstakes
800-237-2400 |
Carol
Wright
800-67-TARGET |
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