By
Carrie Kerskie, Expert
Kerskie Group, Inc.
As a child, I used to get so
excited when I received something in the mail. Maybe it was due to the
fact that the only time I would get mail was either my birthday or
Christmas. It was not unusual to find a check from my Grandmother
sandwiched between the card.
Now, as an adult, it is
quite the opposite. The only mail I receive is either bills or junk
mail. Neither of which I look forward to receiving. While there is not
much I can do to eliminate the bills, there are a few things I can do to
eliminate the junk mail. Another benefit of eliminating the junk mail
is that it enables me to identify potential scams.
Junking junk mail
The
first tool to eliminate a large portion of junk mail is the DMAchoice
program from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). This program was
created to give you control over what mail you receive.
The
types of categories you may opt-out from receiving are credit card
offers, catalogs, magazine offers (this includes subscription offers,
newsletters, periodicals and other promotional mailings) and other mail
offers (donation requests, bank offers, retail promotions and more). You
can choose to opt-out of specific direct mail categories or all of the
direct mail categories. Once registered, DMA forwards your category
preference(s) to their 3,600 member organizations.
To register visit
www.dmachoice.org
and enter your information such as name, address and email
address.There is no cost to register. You can also register by mail.
Their website provides you with a form you can print and mail to DMA.
The fee to register by mail is $1.00.
Caregivers also have an option to register on behalf of those in your care. Just visit
Do Not Contact for Caretakers and follow the instructions.
Cancelling pre-approved credit offers
There
is another source to opt-out of pre-approved credit card offers. While
DMAchoice works with member organizations, this program works directly
with the credit bureaus Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Innovus.+
To register for the program, visit
OptOutPrescreen.com
or call 888-567-8688. If you register online or by telephone, your
registration is valid for five years. To make the registration permanent
you will need send in the confirmation agreement. This agreement will
be emailed to you when you register online or be mailed to you if you
register by telephone.
Doing away with "Dear occupant" mail
In order to opt-out of generic mail, the type that says "Dear Occupant"
or "Dear Resident," you must send a written request to the organization
that sent you the generic solicitation. In the letter, provide your
name and mailing address and state clearly that you wish to opt-out from
receiving future mail.
Saying no to unsolicited calls
While
junk mail is a nuisance, unsolicited telephone calls can be dangerous.
Often scammers will call pretending to be from a legitimate organization
in an attempt to get you to send money or provide your sensitive
information.
One such scam is where the caller
pretends to be from the IRS. He states that you owe money and if you do
not pay within 30 seconds you will be arrested. They use fear and
intimidation to get the victim to do what they want.
But how can you tell which calls are legitimate which are scams?
It
is often difficult to make that determination based on the call alone.
One way to reduce, if not eliminate, legitimate calls is to register for
the national Do Not Call list. This is a result of the
Telecommunications Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Once you have placed
your home phone number(s) on the Do Not Call list, callers are
prohibited from making telephone solicitations to you number.
This
does not apply to organizations with which you currently conduct
business (known as an established business relationship "ERB") or tax
exempt organizations. You will still receive calls from your bank, calls
soliciting donations and—everyone's favorite—political calls.
To
register for this free service call 1-888-382-1222 from the telephone
number you wish to register. You can also register online at:
www.donotcall.gov. Registration with the Do Not Call list does not expire so there is no need to call again.
Telemarketers
have 31 days from the date you registered to remove your information
from their call list and stop calling you. If you receive a call after
31 days, notify the caller that you are on the national Do Not Call list
and ask them to remove your contact information.If they continue to
call you, then you can report them online at the
Do Not Call List website.
By law, organizations that are not tax exempt must remove a consumer's
contact information from their call list when it is requested by the
consumer.
Like I said, this will not eliminate all calls, but it will greatly reduce the number of legitimate, unsolicited calls.
Now
you know that any calls from non-tax exempt organizations have a high
probability of being a scam. For the calls you or your loved one may
receive, here are a few signs to identify a scam:
- Caller has a heavy accent
- Caller is asking you to provide sensitive information
- Caller is threatening or bullying you
- Caller demands money
- Caller demands the funds in the form of a money order
- Caller refuses to remove your information from his call list
- Caller claims to be from the IRS and demands money or sensitive information
- Caller threatens your arrest if you do not comply
Also,
don't be fooled by the callerID. CallerID can easily be manipulated
using free online tools. I could call you and have the callerID read
"IRS" or "police." It really is just that simple.
If you
are in doubt when you receive an unsolicited telephone call, simply hang
up the phone. If you get a call from someone claiming to be from your
bank or credit card company, hang up and call your bank on the telephone
number printed on your bank statement, or call the credit card company
at the telephone number on the back of your credit card. If they claim
to be from the IRS, you can visit the IRS website (
www.irs.gov), and call them at the telephone number listed on the website. You get the idea.
Tackling unwanted text messages
For
all of you smartphone users, if you receive spam-type text messages on
your cell phone you can typically forward the text message to 7726. This
could be different with your cell phone company, so check with them
first. By forwarding the text message, you are notifying your cell phone
carrier of the spam text. They will then add this to their identified
spam messages list and attempt to block the sending number. This process
is similar to identifying an unsolicited email as spam or junk mail.
Once you have labeled it as junk mail, your email provider will block
future emails from that sender from getting into your Inbox.
While
you may not be able to block all potential frauds and scams, these
tools will help you to eliminate the majority of the legitimate
solicitations so all that remains are frauds and scams. At that point,
you can simply toss the mail or hang up the telephone to take care of
the rest.
