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Every time I move, I do the process at this website: http://www.junkbusters.com/junkmail.html

You end up printing out about 20 different letters that you just fold, staple, stamp, and mail. A few require signatures. You'll later get several letters saying "you've been taken off the list" and then the junk mail reduces to a trickle. The only things I get now are from local businesses and a shitty mortgage company that won't stop mailing me.

Here is what to do when you are on the list and still get a call:
http://www.junkbusters.com/script.html
You may be able to sue them.

The radio frequency identification, or RFID, is an inherently flawed idea. It is a technological solution to a social problem that it created. It is a threat to our security, our privacy, our freedom, and now also our health! And this is not a just conspiracy theory. Some of the most respectable members of our society are protesting against RFID technology, including Bruce Schneier and even Richard Stallman. My only question is, how much more insult to our intelligence can we take as a society before we start actively protesting? Our freedom, our privacy, our health and our dignity is being taken from us and all we can do is complain on the Internet? Where are the protesting groups? Where are the outraged people desperate to change the situation? Where are the angry mobs? What else are we going to let them take away from us before we stop talking and start acting?

It is very easy to put a one-time programmable ROM on silicon. Intel did something like this on the Pentium 3.

As long as the device syncs with a central server, programming should be easy since only the central server has to maintain the variant list. The device just has to update itself with the 'plays' you have left and count down. It is just like what Apple does with buying music off of itunes, except in this case you only play a set number of times.

Play the fools at their own game.

Print one of these out and keep it by the phone:
Anti-Telemarketing Script
Anti-Telemarketing Script
Anti-Telemarketing Script

To opt-out of receiving snail junk mail check out http://www.junkbusters.com/junkmail.html.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 was not designed to prevent spam (although it's being used that way now). It was designed to stop junk faxes and it really works! Use it! Here's some good info.

• Junkfax
• Junkbusters
• If you're in the US, the Federal Communications Commission

Here's the Junkbusters Telemarketing Script

Junkbusters has some advice. http://www.junkbusters.com/junkdata.html

They also have a lot of good information for dealing with the DMA and others.

There is the Robinsonlist. Also look at the Anti-Telemarketing Script and then there is: The counterscript available in several languages and also in PDF.

Basically, you can either use standard technical or social means for screening out telemarketing calls or you may have to resort to a legal approach. For standard methods, consult Junkbusters as a start. In this case, you may have to resort to a legal approach. Private Citzen has one book you might find useful if you care enough about this to go that route.

I use the "Fletch" method to disguise my consumer loyalty cards. I have been thanked as "Mr. Nugent", "Mr. Truman" and "Mr. Cocktosen".

Otherwise try these tips...
Going

Diss credit: Want to be hard to find? Start by dashing off stern opt-out letters to the big database companies and credit bureaus - Experian, TransUnion, Equifax. These folks may make a mint peddling personal info, but they can be cajoled into stopping. First, though, they'll make you jump through hoops - like filling out a 1040-sized form or idling in toll-free hell. Junkbusters has a good list of opt-out addresses.

Anonymize: Ditch your ISP and sign up with a service that lets you surf by proxy, keeping your IP address concealed. Send email via an anonymous remailer like Mixmaster, a digital middleman that scrambles timestamps and message sizes. And if you're going to be advocating the violent overthrow of the government or bragging about your cool new bong, make sure your remailer routes messages through multiple machines.

Grok the fine print: Boring as it sounds, read the privacy statements that clutter your mailbox around tax time and sever ties with companies that admit, "Our privacy policy may change over time" - industry lingo for "We reserve the right to screw you."

Going Further

Ditch the digits:Want to drop out?Start by rustling up a new Social Security number.

The Social Security Administration doesn't accept paranoia as a criterion for granting a new card, but it recognizes cultural objections and religious pleas. One stratagem: Contend that your credit has been irrevocably damaged by a number-related snafu, or that you live in fear of a stalker who knows your digits. Once you switch your SSN, never use it. Instead, dole out 078-05-1120, an Eisenhower-era card that works 99 percent of the time.

Call cell-free: Use the humble pay phone. Mobile phones are being outfitted with global positioning satellite chips to comply with an FCC mandate. By 2006, all wireless networks must feature 911-friendly tracking technology. Marketers are cooking up ways to capitalize, like zapping burger coupons to your Nokia as you stroll by a fast-food joint.

Pay full price: You may relish saving 10 percent on Prell, but deep-six your buyers' club cards. Supermarkets and pharmacies haven't yet perfected the art of data mining, but it won't be long. "If you're having a child custody fight, they could subpoena your frequent-shopper cards and say, 'Look, he's buying too many potato chips, he's hurting the kids,'" says Robert Gellman, a Washington-based privacy consultant.

Gone

Move: Want to go completely off the grid? Start by moving - address changes bedevil databasers. But don't buy a home. All those loan apps will blow your cover. Residential hotels smell like cheap cigars and urine, but at least you can register under a pseudonym. Give a fake address: 3500 S. Wacker, Chicago, IL, 60616 - the front door for Comiskey Park.

Toss your cards:Pay cash for everything, and don't plan on a life of luxury. Any (legal) cash transaction more than $10,000 triggers government reporting regulations, which means you can forget about that Cadillac Escalade you've had your eye on. Settle for the subway or bus, using coins rather than prepaid fare cards, which keep a record of trips.

Go incognito: Facial-recognition gear will soon be ubiquitous in public spaces. To fool the systems, invest in a pair of bulky aviator sunglasses and a hat. If you fear being tailed, alter your gait every time you hit the street - a pigeon-toed shuffle one day, a bowlegged amble the next. There are also Central American plastic surgery mills, beloved of drug lords, that can alter the loops and whorls on your fingertips. It'll set you back 10 Gs, but then, Costa Rican doctors have been known to accept gold Rolexes in lieu of cash.

The key is to look at all mail from the top right first, where the stamp/imprint is. If it says 'PRSRT STD', 'STANDARD', or 'STD' that means it was mailed at Standard instead of Frist Class rates. Standard rate is the new term for bulk mail. In this house, all Standard rated mail gets torn in half and put into the paper recycling bin. If it is from a credit card company, it hits the shreader first.

The reason for this is that Standard rate can pretty much be only used to send you advertising. No bills, payments, or invoices are allowed to be sent via Standard rate. See the flow chart at http://pe.usps.com/text/standardeligibility/ .

In addition use junkbuster's webpage to generate an opt out letter for all DMA member companies: http://www.junkbusters.com/declare.html .

Don't catch a STD from your mail! Throw it out!

d

>Say...you don't have the name of the IE ad-blocking tool handy, do you?

I'm not aware of an IE ad-blocking plugin, but you can use a proxy for this purpose, and it will work with all the browsers configured to use it. JunkBusters maintains a page that offers two products, both free: Guidescope ("easy"), and the Internet JunkBuster.

If you're interested in an even more powerful solution, you could leverage the free Squid Caching Proxy to block offenders.

If you are in the U.S. and the line is registered residential, then this has been illegal since 1991.

Some relevant links:

• DMA Info
• The FCC
• Wikipedia
• Junkbusters

Because in most cases, I can stop a marketer from sending me junk mail.

The postal service controls and regulates bulk mail. The business and sending address are almost always known- if they're sending true bulk-rate mail, the sending business and address is known with certainty. If they send stuff and you ask them not to, but they keep sending it, they can be taken to court, have to pay your court costs, fines, damages, etc. Even the 'evil' direct marketing association runs a service to keep you off of their lists, which, though voluntary, supposedly does help keep the volume down - partly because bulk mailing costs enough that they don't want to send mail to people who will just toss it without opening it, really.

The mail is heavily regulated, and costs a fair amount to use. Sure, I get lots of junk mail. But it's nothing compared to the volume of spam, and if I want to stop the junk mail, it can, in fact, be done to a very large extent, with the post office and marketers themselves often helping assist you. Asking spammers to stop sending you spam, on the other hand, just gets you more spam...

I started this thinking there'd be just one reason junk mail is so different from spam, but it turns out there are a lot of reasons, important reasons, especially when combined with the very very very low cost of sending spam and the high cost of trying to filter it out. Honestly, if all spam was just marked "BULK" or something in the subject, I wouldn't mind quite so much, although it'd still be a 'receiver-pays' system...

In the US it is illegal for telemarketers to call cell phones. IT still happens, and you do pay for the minutes. However you can recover several times your costs when it happens. Thus cell phone spam doesn't happen.

Many cell phone plans include national roaming. If you have that, you don't care who owns the tower, because it costs you nothing extra. T-Mobile, Cingler, and Verizon all have such plans. I don't think any of them sell anything other than the cheapest 60 minutes talk time plans without national free roaming. Other carriers have different plans, but those are the big ones.

Source - Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991

From Subpart L - Restrictions on Telephone Solicitation

L. No person may

a. Initiate any telephone call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice,

i. To any emergency telephone line, including any 911 line and any emergency line of a hospital, medical physician or service office, health care facility, poison control center, or fire protection or law enforcement agency;
ii. To the telephone line of any guest room or patient room of a hospital, health care facility, elderly home, or similar establishment; or
iii. To any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call;

(Emphasis mine) This appears to be the law that made calling cell phones illegal, but it seems it is specific to "telephone calls". I would think a good lawyer could argue that they're essentially the same thing though.

IANAL, but the Telephone Consumers Protection Act seems to disagree.

From Subpart L - Restrictions on Telephone Solicitation
Section e. 2. v.

"Affiliated persons or entities. In the absence of a specific request by the subscriber to the contrary, a residential subscriber's do-not-call request shall apply to the particular business entity making the call (or on whose behalf a call is made), and will not apply to affiliated entities unless the consumer reasonably would expect them to be included given the identification of the caller and the product being advertised."

ref. Junkbusters

I think the whole Senate deserves lots of cookies. Hatch should get lots of spyware and adware too.

junkbusters has an interesting mention of something called a prohibitory order.

If you fill out USPS form 1500 against any non-governmental organization, they MUST stop sending you mail. It was originally meant to stop pornographic junk mail, but since one man's porn is another man's art, it's now up to you to determine whether you find), let's say, mortgage offers arousing and/or patently offensive.

I've heard that it's better to say "please put me on your 'do not call' list", instead. Asking to be removed from the company's calling list may result in your number being added back to the database later while being explicitly added to the company's own DNC list will keep them from calling you for as long as they're required to keep the entry.

I believe you are correct. Although IANAL, asking to be removed from their list does not seem equivalent to asking them to not call again. The law, the FTC regulations regarding telemarketing, and (I believe) the FCC regulations regarding use of telephone equipment usually refer to "do not call" requests, not "remove from list" requests, so that would seem to be the prudent approach.

Keep logs. On the second violation, you can sue them for $500 per violation based on 47 USC 227, with treble damages ($1500) per violation if you can show they knowingly and willfully violated the statute.

Don't let them claim your DNC request will take X number of days to take, either. IIRC, the law and the supporting regulations state that they must honor your request from the time of the request. I argued with a telemarketing supervisor for a number of minutes about this on one occasion. Curiously, the copy of their Do Not Call procedures they sent me at my request (another legal right you have) DID NOT support that claim.

If you have a computer and a voice/fax modem and voicemail/fax software, it's easy enough to make your own telezapper. You can even do it with an regular answering machine, though you might find it difficult to make a high enough quality recording for it to work correctly. In both cases, you just pre-pend your answering message with the appropriate SIT tones and a few seconds of silence.

JunkBUSTERS has a good web page on dealing with junk faxes. They also have lots of good, practical advice on lots of other related communications abuses. This is a site that is well worth checking out.

JunkBUSTERS has a good web page on dealing with junk faxes. They also have lots of good, practical advice on lots of other related communications abuses. This is a site that is well worth checking out.

If we started slapping "Return to sender" stickers on flyers and other unaddressed promotional garbage, would it actually make it back to the companies? Or would the postal service just dispose of it.

After filling out and mailing all the forms at Junkbuster's declaraion page and it not having enough of an effect, I tried this: everything I got in the mail that I didn't want I wrote "Return to sender" on and stuck in the out box. Some of it went back. Most of it the post office stuck back in my mailbox saying "we can't return bulk mail" or some other BS. I just kept writing "Return to sender" on it and sticking it back in the out box.

One day, I got a note in my mailbox from the post office. It said to come down to pick up my mail. So I went down to the post office. As soon as I handed over the note, the clerk took back to the offices. A little later a stern looking man came out and had a little "talk" with me about how they would have to discontinue delivering my mail if I continued to "abuse" the system (I was halfway tempted to continue ;).

What it comes down to, even after getting off of all the junk mailing lists, and contacting all the companies that send you junk mail to tell them to FOAD, you will STILL get mail that you can't return to sender or have turned off. For me, it's the flyers I get from the local grocery store, cingular and the penny pincher, even though I never read them.

These ones never have return addresses, and I have been severely tempted to start a movement to get a bill passed in congress to disallow these kind of "mailings" anymore. But, I'm lazy, and most days there's not a thing in my mailbox anymore. Wish I could say the same for spam, but that will be fixed soon . . .

I can't see the Publisher file, but this is what I was thinking. Found it with a quick Google.

-

Of course, if it still annoys you, there are a few simple steps you can take to drastically reduce the amount of direct mail you get. The majority of the mail I get is now mail I want to get. I still get AOL CDs, but it's down to twice a year - usually due to a new magazine subscription where I haven't told them my preferences.

It shouldn't be difficult for those of us with open source browsers to find tools to block these things.

Funny you should mention that---I just checked over at MSN, pottered about randomly for a few minutes, and saw nothing like the commercials being discussed here.

Could it have something to do with me running the Junkbuster proxy, and surfing with Mozilla configured to disable Java and Javascript? :-)

If they can't get their ideas across without that stuff, they don't really want to talk to me.

I've been using JunkBusters and now Privoxy for so long I don't even know what ads you all complain about are.

I highly recommend Privoxy as you can configure it to allow ads at sites you want to support while suppressing ads for everything else.

One of the most useful resources I have found is the Anti-Telemarketing Script from Junkbusters.com. Apart from this, they also have tons of information on how to stop snail-mail junk, etc. Check them out.

One of the most useful resources I have found is the Anti-Telemarketing Script from Junkbusters.com. Apart from this, they also have tons of information on how to stop snail-mail junk, etc. Check them out.

You can stop a huge percentage of your junk mail by filling out and mailing the forms at junkbusters.com. I have done that at most places I lived and eliminated 90% of my junk mail - perminantly.

As far as suing is concerned, I agree you need to talk to a lawyer. Many laywers will give you a 5 minute free phone consultation if you just call and ask for advice. I have gotten excellent advice this way on at least 2 occasions.

Good luck!

All of those pre-recorded telemarketing calls have been illegal for 12 years and nobody would bust them. I hope the bigger fines will get somebody, somewhere interested in seeking out and fining the scofflaws.

For more practical answers on what to do, Junkbusters has lots of good advice. In particluar, their Anti-telemarketing script works wonders.

Another one of the suggestions that is particularly effective is to simply to screen all of your incoming calls. I use a combination of an answering machine (actually my computer running PMFax Pro) with a SIT tone leader and Caller-id. Occationally, a telemarketter won't get the hint and will call every day until I resort to the script, but that's rare these days.

Since I started using these techniques, telemarketting calls have gone from five or six a day to once a month.

For more practical answers on what to do, Junkbusters has lots of good advice. In particluar, their Anti-telemarketing script works wonders.

Another one of the suggestions that is particularly effective is to simply to screen all of your incoming calls. I use a combination of an answering machine (actually my computer running PMFax Pro) with a SIT tone leader and Caller-id. Occationally, a telemarketter won't get the hint and will call every day until I resort to the script, but that's rare these days.

Since I started using these techniques, telemarketting calls have gone from five or six a day to once a month.

There are two items I'd like to address:

1. Please call this judge (since he believes in free speech) on his public phone and use your right to free speech to calmly and politely tell them that you are very upset that he ruled in favor of private for profit corporations to ring your private, individually funded, telephone.

Judge Edward W. Nottingham
Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse A1041 / Courtroom 14
(303) 844-5018



2. To address this entire situation: I'd like to say that I feel that it is completely insane! The fact of the matter is, there are already laws in place that opt a person out when a telemarketer calls. If simply you tell a telemarketer to no longer call you, they can't call you for 10 years! This law is on the books and sets a prior precedent.

Here are a few links that clearly state this fact:

FTC

Junkbusters

So this brings me to this question... What in the hell are the telemarketers trying to prove? That the RIAA is not the only one that can piss off their target market?

The do-not-call list is even better for telemarketers as it provides only 5 years of protection and it saves them the time AND the money from having to maintain and collect data on their own lists!

Can someone help me understand how any of this free speech platform they are using is in any way valid at all?

Ask to talk to a supervisor, it takes time and money to train them, regular employees are a dime a dozen, it has the advantage of costing the TM money, scaring the employee (at least if they're new,) and aggravating the supervisor:)

Yes. I really did not even need to sign up for the new list. It has been 2 years since I got a single telemarketing call. For a couple of years I used the "Anti-telemarketing Script" from the excellent Junkbusters website. It actually made dealing with telemarketers fun.

I recorded the date and time at the top of each form. Then asked the *long* list of questions. At the slightest bobble (usually when I insisted they add *all 3* of my phone numbers to their "do not call" list - which they didn't know how to do since they just had a check mark on the computer screen for the one number they had called -) I would ask for the supervisor and put them through the whole thing again. If they answered any of the questions incorrectly, I would read to them from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

I filed every form in a folder I kept by the phone which also had lots of blank copies of the form. When a certain long distance telephone company continued to call me for 18 months after I asked to be put on their "do not call" list, I wrote my congressman, and eventually he urged me to file a formal complaint with both the FTC and the FCC." I sent every piece of documentation, including all the times I had asked to have a copy of their do not call policy sent to me, which they are required by law to do if requested, and which they had *never* done.

Turns out, they take the feds seriously! After that, I think I got put on a very special list which they must share with one another - the "Consumer Bitch from Hell" list. Never got another telemarketing call (except local businesses) from that day to this.

Of course I won't choose the hardest spams to pursue: I'll choose the easy ones. Here is a link that I find a good starting point. I haven't done my homework yet, but if the law is anything like the junkfax laws, I don't need to worry about other countries or the spammer -> I can sue the guy selling the stuff/services.. Anyhow. All I originally meant was that the fines are punitive, and at least it appears that individuals can take action. Meaningless as it is, I am at least optimistic that this is an issue with politicians..

Very few of them know about the requirement for a WRITTEN do-not-call policy and/or the need to provide it to the consumer on request. Even if they do, just not knowing about it violates the law.

Here's just one active consumer's results: smallclaim.info

My results have been very similar (although I have a little bit better collection record, for whatever reason). Do your checking account, and more importantly, your fellow consumers a favor, and enforce the law congress enacted, as only you can.

junkbusters.com
or dmaconsumers.org

Unless you use the AOL CD as an artificial vagina, you won't get far with that application.

Wrong! Go read this page. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Now, pay special attention to these sections (emphasis mine):

a. Whoever for himself, or by his agents or assigns, mails or causes to be mailed any pandering advertisement which offers for sale matter which the addressee in his sole discretion believes to be erotically arousing or sexually provocative shall be subject to an order of the Postal Service to refrain from further mailings of such materials to designated addresses thereof.

...and...

Both the absoluteness of the citizen's right under 4009 and its finality are essential; what may not be provocative to one person may well be to another. In operative effect the power of the householder under the statute is unlimited; he may prohibit the mailing of a dry goods catalog because he objects to the contents or indeed the text of the language touting the merchandise. Congress provided this sweeping power not only to protect privacy but to avoid possible constitutional questions that might arise from vesting the power to make any discretionary evaluation of the material in a governmental official.

It is not up to the post office to decide that you can't get aroused by AOL CD's.. In a nutshell, what's offensive to you may be miles apart from what's offensive to me, so the Supreme Court decided it's not up to the postoffice to make the judgement call. If you deem it offensive, form 1500 applies.

I've used it successfully to stop CitiBank's incessant bombardment of "you're pre-approved" credit card offers (I was litterally getting 3 a day for a while). Try it, it works.

Shayne

I hate to deliver the bad news to you guys, but with the advent of cheap international telephone calls, the next logical step is for telemarketing calls to move overseas. Companies that make this move will no longer have to worry about TCPA and can literally call anytime. Perhaps the check to this lies in the companies that telemarketers promote; if they are big and international, they might be subject to TCPA, but it's doubtful whether Bangalore telemarketers for ATT put ATT at any risk of liability. I have been gathering evidence for some small claim TCPA actions. If you want to cost these companies money, demand that they send a written copy of this policy. (Although most telemarketers don't know this, TCPA requires it! If they don't, they are subject to a $500 penalty). And even if they do send it, it imposes a cost on telemarketing calls. More info at junkbusters .

yesterday as i went through *35* pieces of junk mail from 3 days i was wondering if the USPS had an opt out from certain mailers form?

also requires courts to impose an additional $250 civil penalty per spam to be used to fund high-tech crime task forces throughout the state

I recommend reading this. It is illegal for telemarketters to call any number for which the callee is charged. I've put my cell phone on lots of forms and so forth and never gotten a spam call to it so I suspect the telemarketroids are sufficiently spooked by legality issues to not call it.

Don't waste the USPS's time with the "return to sender" game.

According to this it probably won't make it back to the sender anyway... :(

1. No person may
   
   1. Initiate any telephone call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice,
      
   2. To any emergency telephone line, including any 911 line and any emergency line of a hospital, medical physician or service office, health care facility, poison control center, or fire protection or law enforcement agency;
   3. To the telephone line of any guest room or patient room of a hospital, health care facility, elderly home, or similar establishment; or
   4. To any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call;
2. Initiate any telephone call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message without the prior express consent of the called party, unless the call is initiated for emergency purposes or is exempted by sec. 64.1200(c).
3. Use a telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine.
4. Use an automatic telephone dialing system in such a way that two or more telephone lines of a multi-line business are engaged simultaneously.

Oddly, almost every telemarketer that I said this to would politely say "OK, you can expect calls to cease within 3 weeks" or something like that.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't cut the legal mustard (at least in the U.S.). If my skim of the JunkBusters site picked up the right info, once you tell them to put you on their do-not-call list they can't call you again for ten years or you can quite easily file some legal papers and get $500 per infringement out of the bastards.

I never get telemarketing calls (a combination of luck and a very careful selection of who gets my phone number) or I would be keeping a list and checking it twice to try to cash in on this.