It’s all about getting you to open the envelope.  Stuff like that has a greater return of being opened - and hence, followed up on - than a regular junk mail envelope.  I see this a lot when mailing houses send in proposals.  Shit, even Western Union can make your fund raising materials look like an important telegram (yeah, people still send telegrams, if you can believe that) and/or a money transfer.  The point is to get you to open the envelope, which is a hell of a sight more than you would do if it looked like a typical credit offer or donation solicitation.

But your response is similar to my response, which is why I would never stoop so low as to trick anyone like that.  If what you have to offer doesn’t speak for itself and you need trickery?  You’re probably playing the wrong damn game.

I haven’t seen the actual envelope or letter but I wouldn’t be surprised if you are one of the many victims of Mail Fraud.  Millions of people are subjected to fraud everyday and the majority of it goes unreported.

Mail use laws, especially in regard to financial offerings are very stringent.  Fortunately the USPS has set up a website to log multiple offenders. USPS Mail Fraud.

I got tired of shredding all the crap that these idiots would try and slip by and over the past year worked it down to about handful of junk items a month.  I found out about this at a conference in California and the USPS supposedly uses this information when it comes to contracting bulk mail rates and other such such things.  I figured, I don’t deal with SPAM so why should I deal with junk mail.

I had an experience much like yours today, Les, except due to an email I received.

It was from an individual named Rosella Mobley with the heading “oil filter 10 philosophers”. That was enough to cause me to wonder how the top philosophers rank oil filters. Surely the advice would be useful in some funky celery-meets-peanut butter yet fundamentally right kind of way, so I clicked on it.

It was merely an attempt to sell Generic Viagra. When I finally do need Viagra or an equivalent (and if GeekMom is on the market again) I can assure this company that I will go to any other source or do without. The bitches! Do they really think that after misleading me, I would trust them enough to buy from them? Fine then, but they shouldn’t think so!

All spammers should die.  Mailbox spam, e-mail spam, phone spam, cell phone spam, fax spam, spam spam spam spam.  I hate spam.  If I had a shrubbery, I’d shove it up their a**.  Ooops....off on a rant.

Heh, welcome to the club!  You should probably expect more of those delightful offers. 
Since buying our house about a year ago, both my wife and I get that exact offer from CITI Financial at least once a week!  Yours probably has the name of a local branch manager.  I’ve called mine twice; once to ask the best rate they could offer (18%!!!) and a second time to ask to be removed from their list.  That was over a month ago and I shredded a new ‘Pre-approved Account Statement’ just this afternoon.
Please let us know if you find a way to stop the flood of junk!
--weasel

Brock honey, you won’t need Viagra while I’m around.

Unless you have a screaming baby in the house, in which case all bets are off ...

("then")

There goes SEB’s chances for becoming a family friendly website.  Just when Pat Robertson was starting to lurk in the shadows.

If this keeps up maybe Les can start selling Geekmom calendars in the Cafepress store.  The men of SEB 2005 calendar has already sold out.

To get back on topic.  A great first step in stopping the junk mail is contacting your bank and creditors and having them place you on their ‘Do Not Solicit’ (DNS) list.  Also inform them that you don’t want your information shared with any third-parties without your consent.  Be sure to specify all methods of communication you do not want to receive.  When I lived in California they even had to stop using those stupid return envelopes with attached offers for monogrammed pens.

Hey, want to get Citi Financial to quit mailing you their (deceptive) offers? They let you do it. Go here: https://secure.citifinancial.com/forms/dn_solicit.php

Comment spam in a thread about spam. Life’s ironic, isn’t it?

Ingolfson

‘word’

It’s gone now. The power of DELETE.

The power of DELETE…

“Frau H., Frau H. - Ich hab’s Internet gelöscht!”

Or (in Englisch):

“Mrs. H., Mrs. H. - I deleted the Internet!”

(Running gag with me and my best friend who really was met with that dreadful confession by a clueless secretary at her office)

LOL

Well, that was supposed to be ‘English’, obviously. Everyone should have noticed that I’m German by now

I receive junk mail everyday. We get phone calls from sales people, even though we are X directory.
Yesterday I had an email from Pat@viking something or other saying I had sent them an email that contained a worm virus. I have never heard of that person and certainly never sent them an email. What sort of nutter is that?!!!!!

May an asteroid seek out and destroy all senders of unwanted CRAP!!!!

How about this one?  I apply for a debt consolidation loan with these clowns.  They ask me for my list of employers from current day back to 2003.

I tell them where I work now (civilian job), and I tell them that from 2003 until 2005 I was in Iraq with the US Army.

They then tell me that they need 2 years tax returns to reflect I’m in the same line of work for the past 2 years, and I cannot count my income because I haven’t been in this line of work for 2 years yet.

And so, Citi Financial will not grant loans to returning servicemembers who have since gotten out and got other “safer” jobs after fighting for their country.  The same country that their corporation is based in.

How’s that for F***ed up?

-SGT Scooby