How to Stop the Flow of Junk Mail

Whether it's in the real or virtual world, junk mail can become a nuisance.

Junk mail is not only a nuisance, but it is an invasion of your privacy. The production of junk mail delivered through your mail boxes, such as leaflets and catalogs, is also incredibly damaging to the environment. And online spam clutters up people's inboxes, making it harder to discern which emails are important. Although it is almost impossible to stop the flow of junk mail entirely, there are several ways to stem it.

Things You'll Need

• Telephone
• Computer

Instructions

Online

1. Set the spam filter on your email account to maximum. This will block out the majority of junk mail coming into your inbox. Check your junk mail folder occasionally because a genuine email might have been mistakenly recognized as spam.

2. Flag any spam article that makes it to your inbox. This helps your email provider to recognize and filter out spam emails in future.

3. Write your email address in the form of "username - at - service provider" when you are putting your contact details on a posting. This prevents bots trawling the Internet from recognizing your email address and putting it onto a junk mail list.

Residential

1. Contact the Direct Marketing Association of America (see Resources) through its "manage your mail" email address. Write to the association, asking it to remove your name from the mailing database.

2. Sign up at websites such as Catalog Choice (see Resources) that endeavor to get your name taken off catalog mailing lists.

3. Put a "No junk mail please" sign up on your front door or mail box. This way, any door-to-door junk mail distributors should avoid putting leaflets through your door.

4. Stop entering competitions or answering needless questionnaires. Often the organizers sell your contact information to junk mail distributors.

References

• Washington Post: Stop the flow of junk mail

Resources

• Direct Marketing Association: Contact
• Catalog Choice