Would you like to know how to stop all your junk mail? It’s possible to stop nearly all of it. Stop Junk Mail is the main site to go to, which has a very simple to understand guide to stopping addressed and unaddressed junk mail. This helps to save one tree per person, each year! You may be interested to know that window cellophane envelopes can be recycled, as the technology now exists for them to be recycled with paper envelopes, so just throw the whole lot in the recycling bin.
Not having junk mail also helps hedgehogs, as most junk mail is delivered by Royal Mail, who have to then carry millions of those red rubber bands, which when dropped harm hogs, and also get eaten by ducks, who think they are worms (or they may even feed them to their chicks).
The less consumerist you are, the less likely you’ll get junk mail. Don’t fill in consumer surveys, and ask your bank not to sell your name on.
- A good idea is to make up a middle initial, if asked for your details. So if your name was Andrew Jackson, you could fill in new details as Mr Andrew A Jackson, Mr Andrew B Jackson, Mr Andrew C Jackson etc (and then keep records). So if you are then bombarded with junk mail, at least you know the culprit, and can ask them to stop.
- Ask for your details to be taken off the open electoral register (where your name can be sold) and only listed on the one that lets you vote.
- Donate anonymously to small ethical charities, without getting bombarded by charities that sell your name on to others (one widowed poppy seller in Bristol had lots of charities take advantage of her generosity – depressed already, her suicide from jumping off a bridge is though to be partly related to overwhelm).
- Ask Royal Mail to stop delivering unwanted mail to your door, although it’s a bit finicky to do. But then once done, they won’t send it. You can also ask various marketing bodies to stop delivering: Mail Preference Service and Fax Preference Service.
- The Bereavement Register stops junk mail being delivered to relatives, which is upsetting to say the least. The Baby Mail Preference Service also tops this, which must be heartbreaking for people who have lost a baby.
Stopping Scam Mail to Help Vulnerable People
You know this. The clairvoyant who says if you don’t buy a talisman, something bad will happen to you. Or you have won an international lottery, even though you never entered.
Think Jessica is a campaign run by the daughter of a woman, who at the end of her life, was receiving so many requests and junk mail, that she was more worried about the postman’s deliveries, than her own welfare. Her daughter wants posties (often the only people aware) to have someone to notify of concerns, and posters in banks, alerting people who are about to take out their savings to scam mailers. If concerned, report to Which?
How to Stop Unwanted Spam Email
There’s nothing more annoying than when you only want to work or surf online, and then have to trudge through lots of spam emails for anything (loans, lotteries etc). We all know that if you click ‘unsubscribe’, you’ll go straight onto the marketing list and be bombarded forever. And no-one wants to pay for expensive anti-spam filters. So what do you do?
- Change your email address. Proton Mail offers a good free email address, the company is based in Switzerland that has some of the strictest privacy laws. If the spammers get to you, just delete the address and set up another one.
- Don’t give your email out to people you don’t trust. What you could do is to keep one email for private use, then use another one if you have no choice (that way you don’t even have to open the account, the spam emails can just go there and never get read or waste your time).
- If you run a blog, website or online shop, don’t place your email address online. Use the contact form supplied with Jetpack plugin to install a form. That way, you can still reply to customers (your email will then show up) but online spammers can’t see it.
- Report spam mail to the information commissioners office. You’ll have to do this for each separate email address, but the form is simple and you can also report nuisance calls.
