Senior junk mail! Does anyone know if there is a way to have this sort of mail stopped from coming to their mail box?

Years ago, back around the late 1990s, I did agree to have Internet service deducted from my checking account. First and last time I did that.

I banked with a reliable bank, the service provider was reliable, and then all that changed. Bank was acquired by a less reliable bank, service provider was also acquired, and as service declined, I cancelled my account and revoked the direct deduct authorization.

The Internet provider refused to stop billing, the bank refused to take action, I refused to pay, and the charges began to accumulate. I fought, sent letters, got nowhere. Eventually I had no other option other than to pay and get rid of all of them (it was about a $30 charge at that point) or sue, and I didn't really want to sue for $30! Plus there were 3 different jurisdictions involved and it would have been a nightmare if the big nasty bank filed a motion for a change of venue and I had to pursue litigation in NY state.

Never again.

CTTN55, that's exactly how I feel about giving access to my accounts online. The shrink wrapped TOS typically absolve them of liability and in fact require that users indemnify the website, its agents, employees, contractors, and literally the babysitters, mechanics, trash collectors and anyone who performs work for the site.

And they establish the right to use selected data for third party purposes, blah, blah and more blah.

Our privacy is being compromised in so many ways that on the surface appear to provide convenience. We and our data are being commoditized, compromised and exploited.

Rant, rant, and more rants from this person who refused to accede to unreasonable demands just to pay bills.

There are many times when I wish I would have gone to law school, worked up to partnership level, then switched to nonprofit law, and sued all the data thieves.

I use Ancestry.com and have been doing so for over a year. So far so good on privacy.

There are options to blank out the whole family tree and only the developer of that family tree is able to see the tree names. If you opt out of the privacy, it is standard practice for Ancestry to blank out those people who are still alive, thus only I can read the names as I am the developer of my own trees.

Only got one email from a person trying to see if our Grandmothers were related somehow... the email came through the Ancestry site only, not to my personal email. And any of my answers went back through the website.

No junk mail, or telephone calls. Knock on wood.

GardenArtist: "e-bill harassment"

That's a new term, and one I'm going to use! They all want us to use e-bills and to let them have access to our accounts to automatically take out the money!

Biztap, you make a good point about family history sites. But it's unfortunately extended to a lot of unreliable sites that don't do proper research. I've gotten calls from people, literally "out of the clear blue sky", who think they're a relative and want to know more about my family's history. For all I know they're potential data and ID thieves.

I think the next one is going to be told that I don't know anything about my family because a stork delivered me to a very good family. Maybe if I suggest they call the Stork Baby Delivery Company they can get more information. They'll think I'm crazy, and hopefully won't call any more.

The robo calls are I think the worst, as well as the regular solicitations from Capitol One and XFinity/Comcast.

CTTN55, I REALLY hate all this ecobilling and e-bill harassment. Comcast is one of the worst. It charges extra for a paper billing, but it sends out solicitations on a regular basis, and in every single weekly group of grocery and other circulars.

I'm guessing the extra charge for a paper bill allows it to produce more junk solicitations!

I used to apply a preprinted label of "UNSOLICITED MAIL; RETURN TO SENDER AT SENDER'S EXPENSE" until a local postal carrier told me that they don't return mail; they just throw it away.

GardenArtist: "And companies hawk e-billing to save paper. Charities waste it, phenomenally."

Isn't THAT the truth! I never thought of it that way. My mother stresses and frets over all the junk mail she gets. So *I* have to hear about it over and over and over...

freqflyer had the best idea to write the Direct Marketing Association. And yes any donations will generate other solicitations and those note pads and address label-shred or cut them up if you don't want them. Also be aware the a seniors online activity might generate mail as well.

Even worse and out of their control is people using those family history websites because not only are the divulging family information you or they don't know how secure the site and/or their computer is. We started getting mail for a deceased spouse over the last year and I'm almost sure it was someone checking family history.

I'd like to answer __________ Police Department but don't want to get in trouble for pretending to be a cop.

And, unfortunately, most of the calls are robo calls with advice to "press 1 now" to get whatever is allegedly free, or press some other number to opt out, which only confirms a real live person was reached.

I do still practice making weird sounds if I get a live one; they can't figure out what's going on. I need to remember to stop at an Army-Navy surplus store and see if I can get a submarine horn to blast the real live callers.

MamaChar, I used the Direct Marketing website to get my name off of mailings decades ago and it had worked for awhile.

What happens now, if you order clothes from one website, if that website has ten sister websites with different website names that also sells clothes, well you are now on their mailing list, and websites for shoes, websites for gardening, whatever is under the parent company.

When my Dad was still living in his house, I had all his mail transferred to my house as he no longer wanted to fuss with the bill paying. The post office would only transfer first class mail and subscription magazines.... bravo, no junk mail.

So now a days, I also get junk mail on my e-mail. For while all was quiet, but just the other day a whole bunch of unwanted junk mail entered my mailbox. I do go in to unsubscribe if the site looks legit.

What is driving us crazy are ALL the telemarketing calls. Like, enough already!! So now my sig other if he sees the caller ID isn't anyone he knows he answers "________ Cemetery" since that is where he works. And I started to use "____________ Property Management?". Usually you get a pause, as most of these calls are designed to go to residences not to businesses.

I've started collecting their mail for them and will be discarding the junk mail before giving it to them...my mom's still very interested in the mail, but she gets plenty of magazines and other correspondence so hopefully she won't notice :)

Has anyone heard of DMAchoice.org?
Apparently, you can sign up and have the junk mail reduced significantly over a period of months. It seems to be the go-to site for this but I'd feel more comfortable trying it if someone here could vouch for it!

Thanks for your time and interest here...

Several years ago my father counted all the free address labels he had at time. It was either over 2 or 3,000.

And companies hawk e-billing to save paper. Charities waste it, phenomenally.

My mom sends money to St Judes,, in fact when dad passed we asked that gifts be sent there. And it snowballs.. I get the mail, and I toss the junk before she sees it. (She lives with us). And all the mail for hearing aides,, visits and free meals at local AL ( hey some of those "welcome" buffets look awesome..LOL ) She knows I do this.. but agrees with "how many free address labels does anyone need?" Asking them to stop got is no where. Even Dad's old colleges still send magizines and such, and they have been notified he passed...

I’ve been caring for my aunt for close to 10 years. I know that none of the several solicitation companies have been responded to in at least five years, maybe longer. They have slowly deminished. She still gets one or two. Easter Seals is one that comes to mind. They won’t stop coming in until your mom stops responding to them.
Some people change the address to a post office box. It helps if your mom has lost interest in the mail. That’s hard to do with a stuffed mailbox.
Treat the junk mail like pests or junk food. Not welcome in the home.