By now you may have figured out that I love anything that saves time, energy or money.  No longer having to deal with the reams of junk that we are bombarded with on a daily basis saves me a ton of time.  Interested in taking some of your time back?  Read on…
I have used three out of four of the services listed below so when I read Joe’s e-zine it was a good check-in for me.  This will take a few minutes of your time, but the rewards are great when you realize how much time these offers (intrusions) are making on your day.

I’ll add a note of my own at the end of his list.  Now, to Joe’s suggestions…

4 Things You Can Do to Stop Junk Mail

Thanks to Joe Sabah, Joe@JoeSabah.com, who gave me permission to reprint this from his ‘Stroke of Genius’ e-zine, March 2008

1. Get off the lists:  To get off mailing lists, go to https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/proto1.php the Mail Preference Service registry of the Direct Marketing Association.  It’s a free service, good for three years.
2. To squash pre-approved credit offers, register at www.optoutprescreen.com, or make a toll-free call to 888-567-8688.  It’s also free and will cover you for five years. Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse says “Not only will you nix credit card offers, but you’ll reduce your chances of identity theft.”  You can also use this site or phone number to opt out permanently.
3. Supermarket loyalty cards can generate unsolicited mail, so sign up for cards using a pseudonym like Jane or Joe Shopper, with no address, to preserve anonymity.
4. Stop throwing away mail you receive but do not want.  Instead return to sender, write REMOVE on the envelope and return.  If they have a phone #, call them and ask to be removed.  You will be doing 3 people a favor, 1=YOU, 2=THE SENDER, 3= LANDFILLS

Now for my notes:  I wrote of a service in another blog that will allow you to opt out of Catalogs.  Check out this April 8, 2008 posting:  http://discninja.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/save-a-tree-stop-catalog-insanity/?preview=true

And a final tip: Whenever you receive an unsolicited phone call try this.  Instead of hanging up, being rude or being polite depending on your style, cut the caller off at the earliest possible convenience and calmly tell him or her “Please remove me from your call list.”  If it is a call from a legitimate organization, you will not hear from them again.  After all, they are required to check the Do Not Call Registry (#1 above) and to honor your request for removal once made.

If it is a bogus group then they are knowingly breaking the law.  The good news, however, is they probably won’t find you a likely target for their scam.

In all the years that I’ve done this I’ve had pleasing results.  But, for grins, I want to share my most recent encounter with a phone solicitation.  The call came in.  I answered the phone and realized immediately it was not a call I wanted.  I said “Please remove me from your call list” and the woman told me, with quite a bit of gusto, “Remove Yourself.”  She then hung up on me.

At first I was startled, but the more I think about it I’ve decided that I’ve perfected the art to such a degree that the unwanted callers hang up on me.  Now that’s a switch!
To your peace and well-being!

Alicia

Last 5 posts by Alicia Smith

• Imagination - December 31st, 2008
• Dream of the Future - December 30th, 2008
• Elevator Speech Made Easy - November 28th, 2008
• Invite Ten People to Lunch - November 6th, 2008
• Be Charitable: Donate Your Services - October 29th, 2008

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Computers/Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.