The Gray Monk

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November 13, 2003

Junk Mail

Every day the postman arrives at my door with a collection of letters, most addressed to me or my wife, but some to previous occuppants and some to "The Owner" or "The Occupier". Now SPAM I can handle - Select - Block - Delete - usually works just fine and the rest is easy. Even emptying the helpful little "Recycle" bin on my desktop is as easy, but what do I do with the flood of hard copy dropping through my door on a daily basis? Now it even arrives in my mail tray at work from my Union, my professional bodies and a host of companies who supply equipment or materials that the servce might vaguely have a use for.

It litters my work top, fills up my rubbish bin and if I am not careful - since they helpfully include a lot of Personalised Application forms in them, I wind up with Credit Cards I don't have control over (someone else has helpfully applied for it in my name) or loans I didn't want. I have to physically destry the blasted stuff before I can throw it out which means I have to open it to see what other damaging material it might contain in terms of bank details, names, dates of birth and so on. Where do they get this from?

You've guessed it! That's right, there is big money to be made in selling on client lists, so, every time you buy something you get on a list. And every list gets sold. Ah! But wait a minute, you can opt off those lists can't you? Yes, but some of these are not that evident to start with. Famous line, "Good evening sir/madam, this is a telephone survey" means we're checking our list and you've just confirmed they have the right name and address. Riiiiiiiiiigggghhhhht! More junk mail on its way.

Even the government are in on this racket, they will sell off the Voters Roll for any Parish, Borough or County and you'll be on it - unless you elect to have your details withheld. OK, so you do that this time (the first time you've had the option!) but the gaps can still be plugged by simply checking the last one!

Half my wheelie bin is filled with torn up junk mail each week. Save the planet? Force junk mailers to plant rain forests to replace the piles of paper they're burying us under.

Posted by The Gray Monk at November 13, 2003 02:47 PM

Comments

Posted by: Peskie at June 10, 2005 02:02 PM