Like many other people I know, I have become increasingly frustrated by all of the junk mail I receive on a regular basis. No, I'm not talking about email, I'm talking about mail through the postal service. This frustrates me on many levels. With all the concern over identity theft and privacy, "pre-approved" loan offers through the mail can not be a good idea. I am also a big environmentalist, so the waste of paper and other resources really bugs me. I can't imagine that companies make enough money off these mailings to justify the damage they are causing.
I have wondered in the past whether or not I could get a way with marking the junk mail "Refused - Return to sender" and putting it back in the mail, causing the company that is sending the mailings to be inundated with returned mail, and having to pay the postage. Not that one person doing this would make all that much of a difference. After reading this article (free registration required) from the NY Times, I feel like my possible solution has some merit. There are cases in there of people doing similar things. The best part, it doesn't appear that these activities are illegal. I may have to try this out on a few pieces of junk mail and see if I get any reaction.
On a side note, to avoid the registration required to read the NY Times article, check out BugMeNot.com.
Posted by doug at June 2, 2005 03:25 PMThere is a Firefox plugin available for the BugMeNot.com service here.
Posted by: doug at June 3, 2005 09:39 AMInteresting idea. I may have to give this a whirl myself. I get sick of getting credit card junk mail to get new cards. Could be a double edged sword sending the junk back to them though. They may decide that I am being difficult and raise my interest rate! ;) Just kidding of course...they make so much money that they might not care.
Now if only I could get the newpaper guy to quit throwing papers I don't want in my driveway!
Posted by: Cliff Benoist at June 23, 2005 10:24 AM