Sick of a mailbox full of flyers and credit card offers?

Flyers, important looking envelopes, catalogs, glossy brochures, we've all had to dig through piles of them. Some call it "advertising" but a lot of people simply call it junk mail. So is there a way to stop it all? In part one of a special TODAY three part series called “Scam-Proof Your Life with Sid Kirchheimer,” the author who writes the Scam-Alert column for the A-A-R-P Bulletin has a few tips and tricks to make room in your mailbox.

Stop Unwanted Mail
The less access you provide to your name and address, the more secure you will be. Each year, more than three million Americans discover that false credit accounts have been opened in their name. Of these, at least 400,000 can be attributed to the theft of incoming mail. To reduce your risk of having your identity hijacked in this way—and to ease your loyal mail carrier’s back strain—try these tips to turn a tide of unwanted mail into a trickle.

*Pre-approved Credit Card and Insurance Offers: Call 888-567-8688 (888-5-OPT-OUT) from your home telephone; it will be checked against an address database. Or visit www.optoutprescreen.com/. Taking this simple step should halt what some experts believe is the most dangerous type of unwanted mail: pre-approved credit offers. Why dangerous? Because they can be easily pilfered from your mailbox—and almost as easily doctored to open new accounts in your name. To opt-out of these offers, you’ll be asked for your name, address, birth date, and Social Security number. Don’t worry; the source of these unsolicited mailings are lists sold to these marketers by the four credit-reporting bureaus: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis. You can opt out for five years or permanently, but you must follow the opt-out procedure for each adult member of your family.

If a child under age 13 is being mailed these offers, it could be a sign that identity theft has occurred, so you should immediately contact the credit-reporting bureaus listed below.

• Equifax, P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, Georgia  30374
• Experian, P.O. Box 9532, Allen, Texas  75013
• Innovis Consumer Assistance, P.O. Box 725, Columbus, Ohio  43216-0725
• TransUnion, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, California  92834

Experian Consumer Services will also remove your name from non-credit offers—coupons, flyers and catalogues—that result from its lists. Call 402-458-5247 to opt out of these mail and telemarketing offers.

*List Brokers: Pooling information effortlessly gleaned from phone books, public records—including real-estate transactions, tax files, and birth certificates—and other sources, these companies prepare and sell mailing lists to all kinds of businesses. Write to each listed below, requesting that your name be removed from all of their mailing and telemarketing lists. Preprinted mailing labels to ease the task are available at http://www.fightidentitytheft.com/junkmail_labels.html

Metromail Corporation
List Maintenance
901 West Bond
Lincoln, Nebraska  68521

R.L. Polk & Co. / Name Deletion File
List Compilation Development
26955 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, Michigan  48034-4716

Database America
Compilation Department
470 Chestnut Ridge Road
Woodcliff, New Jersey  07677

Acxiom U.S. 
To request an opt-out form be mailed to you, call 877-774-2094 or complete the request at Acxiom U.S's website. You will then have to fill out another form and mail it back as well.

*Direct Marketing Association—The 5,200 member companies of this trade group use the telephone, mail, and the Internet to pitch their products directly to consumers, bypassing such intermediaries as traditional bricks-and-mortar retail outlets. The DMA regularly updates its list, but the companies it notifies to remove you may not be as prompt. Thus six months may pass before solicitations from all DMA members cease.

*To stop receiving mailings from DMA members, go to www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing. Please note, “consumers” is plural in the address. Alternately, you can access their Mail Preference Service via www.the-dma.org and click on the orange box that reads “remove my name from mailing lists.” Opting out will take your name off the lists of those companies with whom you do not already do business with. You can opt out online or by mail; there’s a $1 charge either way to verify your credit card or checkbook identity.

Mail your request directly to:
Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 643
Carmel, New York 10512

Alternatively, if you only want to stop mailings from a particular company, contact those companies directly. If you do that and continue to get mail from those DMA members, complete the complaint form at www.dmaconsumers.org/consumers/complaintform.doc and mail to:

Direct Marketing Association
c/o Remove My Name
1615 L St. NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20036      
 
*To reduce e-mail solicitations from DMA members at up to three e-mail addresses, visit www.the-dma.org/consumers/optoutform_emps.shtml. The service is free of charge, but you’ll need to confirm within 30 days your receipt of a notice sent to each e-mail address you submit.

*To remove the names of deceased loved ones from commercial marketing lists, visit www.ims-dm.com/cgi/ddnc.php and complete the form. There’s a $1 charge.

*Catalogues: If you’re getting swamped with catalogues—including those from companies you’ve never patronized—chances are it’s because at some time you made some purchase from some catalogue…or perhaps simply requested one. When either of those actions occurs, your name and address are very likely handed over to Abacus, an alliance of catalogue and publishing companies. Abacus members routinely swap customer information. To stop individual catalogues from reaching your home, contact the specific company in question. To stop en masse mailings, send an e-mail to or write to:

Abacus, Inc.
P.O. Box 1478
Broomfield, Colorado  80038

*“Resident” and “Occupant” Mailings: To fend off flyers offering various goods and services, contact: ADVO, Inc. You can remove your name and address by:

• Call: 888-241-6760
• Complete the form at: www.advo.com/consumersupport.html
• Write to: ADVO, Inc. Customer Assistance P.O. Box 249 Windsor, Connecticut  06095

*Val-Pak: Packs arriving in a blue envelope can be stopped via a quick visit to www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm. Other requests can be directed to the sender’s address printed on the envelope you receive. PennySaver and similar mailings can be stopped in much the same way by sending your request to the return address they list.

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