

Your cousin’s wedding invitation could go unanswered, or your credit card bill unpaid, because it got swept into the recycling bin along with all the trash. When your mailbox is overflowing with junk, the few pieces of mail you really need are at risk of getting lost. One irate man wrote to the Huffington Post to complain that his elderly father, who received nearly 100 pieces of junk mail each week, had been lured into giving away nearly $5,000 over a three-month period.
#OPT OUT OF JUNK MAIL FREE#
Many of these are scams that target the elderly, such as phony sweepstakes, investment scams, charity scams, fake free prize or vacation offers, foreign lottery scams, get-rich-quick chain letters, fake checks, work-from-home scams, or inheritance scams. It Can Transmit ScamsĪlthough email and Internet scams are the most common type these days, there are still scammers out there relying on the U.S. There’s also a risk that thieves could steal a prescreened credit card offer from your mailbox and attempt to apply for a card in your name. The more people there are who have your information, the greater the risk that one of them will be hacked and your personal data will be exposed. Aside from leading to even more junk mail, this can put you at risk of identity theft. Marketers and magazines share their mailing lists, spreading your name, address, and purchasing habits all around the country. Multiply that by 52 weeks in a year and maybe 60 years in your adult life, and that’s a total of 130 days – over four months of your life – devoted just to dealing with junk mail. Even if this only takes you 10 minutes each day there’s mail delivery, that adds up to an hour a week. The more junk that clutters up your mailbox, the more time you have to spend sorting, opening, reading, and eventually recycling it. It can cause real problems for you and the planet. Why Junk Mail Is a ProblemĪll this junk mail is more than just a minor annoyance.
#OPT OUT OF JUNK MAIL FULL#
These include catalogs full of products you’d never buy, packets of coupons for stores you never visit, and phone directories you won’t use. Junk mail also includes mailings that could be useful for some people but aren’t for you.

Back when I was young, getting mail was a lot more fun.
