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The average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each
week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail. Collectively,
that adds up to 4.5 million tons of junk mail produced each
year! 44% of all junk mail goes unread and directly into the
trash. - Native Forest Network
Use the printable letters provided and the contacts listed below to keep
junk mail from finding its way to your doorstep.
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5.
Get Your Name Off Those Lists!
Make It A Part of Your Routine!
Are You Overrun with Spam?
Telemarketers Waking You on Weekends?
Reduce charitable solicitations, yet remain connected to desired
charities!
6. Removing the Names of Deceased Individuals from Marketing
Lists!
7. Fee for service to get off lists; includes tree planting.
Get Your Name
Off Those Lists

The average adult is on 50 mailing
lists.
You must make a separate request for each family member you
wish to have removed from a mailing list. The same goes for
former residents.

Contacting direct marketing companies will not get your name
off mailing lists of catalogs or brochures that you have indirectly
solicited by utilizing their services in the past. You must contact
these organizations directly and ask to be removed from their
mailing lists.
Contact the Following Organizations to Reduce Junkmail:
Contact: Credit Bureaus — Equifax / Trans Union / Experion
Services: These three credit bureaus send out most of the
unsolicited credit card offers.
Method: To stop credit card promotions from coming to your
house, call 888-5OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) or
visit www.optoutprescreen.com. They will ask for
your name, address and social security number.
Your social security number is used to locate all
variations of your name that appear on their mailing
lists. You should update every two years.
Contact: Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
Services: DMA is a trade association of businesses who
advertise their products and services directly to
consumers by mail.
Method: There is a $1 fee to file the form by mail. Fill out a
letter, add the $1.00 check, staple it closed, add a
stamp and address and mail. This method takes
approximately 90 days to go into effect. You may
also fill out their online form, which will go into
effect sooner.
Contact: Valassis
Services: Valassis is the direct marketing company behind the
ShopWise™ and Missing Children ads. They claim
to be the single largest private customer of the US
Postal Service.
Method: Call and ask to be removed from their list: 1-800437-0479. You may fill out a free online form. You
may also fill out a letter, staple it closed, add a stamp
and address and mail. Any of these methods takes 68 weeks to go into effect. Valassis' ads are often
delivered with your local supermarket's monthly
coupon book. If you do not want to receive these
additional coupon bundles, you may also have to ask
your postman to stop putting it into your mailbox.
Contact: PennySaverUSA/Harte Hanks Communications
Services: Harte Hanks sends a wide variety of coupons and
ads throughout the country, including Penny Savers.
Method: Call and ask to be removed from their list: 1-800422-4116. Alternatively, you may visit their website.
Contact: Valpak/Cox Target Media
Services: Sends regular mailings full of coupons.
Method: Call and ask to be removed from their list: 1-800237-6266. You can also fill out a letter, staple it
closed, add a stamp and address and mail.
Alternatively, you may visit their website.
Contact: Publisher's Clearinghouse
Services: Sends sweepstakes promotions.
Method: Call and ask to be removed from their list.
Phone: 800-645-9242
Contact: Catalogs or magazines that you don't want
Method 1: Visit Catalog Choice. Fill out online registration
form, indicating which catalogs are not wanted. No
charge.
Method 2: Locate return address on catalog or magazine. Fill
out a letter, staple it closed, add a stamp and address
and mail.
Contact: Computer CD Disks that you don't want
Method: Call 1-800-827-6364 (America Online)
Contact: Your bank, wireless provider, member
organizations, insurance providers, etc.
Method: Companies and organizations that you do business
with are the source of the majority of your junk mail.
Contact each of them individually via email through
their website or via their toll-free number and
request that they stop sending you promotional mail.
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Make It a Part of Your
Routine
Approximately 40% of the solid mass that
makes up our landfills is paper and
paperboard waste. Tax dollars spent to
dispose of junk mail: $320 million. Ecofuture
You may be initiating junk mail without realizing it. Engaging in
following activities often leads to increases in your junk mail load:
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Entering sweepstakes or contests
Filling out warranty cards
Donating to charity organizations
Registering at meetings or conferences
Having your address listed in a publication
Ordering from a catalog
Signing up for a service (such as car insurance or health care)
Having a credit card
To keep these activities from leading to more junk mail, practice
preventative junk mail care and make the following a part of your
routine:

When you sign up for a service or order
from a catalog, tell them to not sell your
name or send you promotional materials.

If you do want to receive a particular
catalog, but not as frequently as they send
it, you may request to receive the catalog less frequently.

On the bottom of checks made out to magazines, catalogs or
charities, write, "DO NOT SELL MY NAME."

Do not give out your address unless it is necessary.
Back to the top
Are You Overrun with
Spam?
Electronic in-boxes are being increasingly
deluged with spam, commercial e-mail that
consumers have not "opted in" to receive.
Join the anti-spam crusade by following the
suggestions below.

Contact the sender's ISP (Internet Service Provider). Virtually
all ISPs forbid their members to send SPAM. If your complaint
is valid, there is a good chance the spammer will lose
connectivity.

Spamcop.net provides a quick and easy online spam reporting
system as well as filtered email accounts.
Back to the top
Telemarketers Waking You on
Weekends?
Contact: Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
Method: Register with the Deceased Do Not Contact List (DDNC)
online.
Web: www.dmachoice.org
Contact: National Do Not Call Registry
Method: Visit the website and fill out their form to add your name
to the do-not-call list.
Web: www.donotcall.gov

Federal law prohibits telemarketers from initiating a telephone
call to a person who has previously stated that they do not wish
to receive calls from that particular company. Therefore, you
may ask the telemarketer to permanently remove you from their
calling list.

If you continue to receive calls from a telemarketer to who
you've requested not to call you back, you may file a complaint
with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by email
at fccinfo@fcc.gov or by phone at 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888225-5322). They use information from this database to pursue
law enforcement action.
Back to the top
Reduce charitable solicitations,
yet remain connected to desired
charities

It's possible to contact charities sending US mail and request
they put you on the "reduced mail option" mailing list. You will
then continue to receive mail only once or a few times
throughout the year.
Back to the top
Removing the Names of Deceased
Individuals from Marketing Lists
Contact: Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
Method: Register with the Deceased Do Not Contact List (DDNC)
online.
Web: dmaconsumers.org

When you register a name with DDNC, the person's name,
address, phone number and e-mail address is placed on a special
do not contact file.

All DMA members are required to eliminate these individuals
from their prospecting campaigns.

A new, updated file is distributed to members at least once every
three months, therefore the number of commercial contacts from
DMA members should begin to decrease within three months.
Back to the top
For information on how to reduce junk mail in your office, please see
our Office Junk Mail page.
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