Washington Snail Mail

Maybe you are one of the few in Washington who, like me, refuse to set up an email address on your computer. Then spammers are not a problem for you, right? Wrong. I bet your mailbox, the old fashioned one on your house, is crammed with paper spam. For every real letter how many unwanted pieces of mail do you get? Bills don't count. If you don't like reading all the ways other people have of separating you from your money then you can have your name removed from the mailing lists that generated all of the literature by writing to the Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008 or call them at (212) 768-7277.

The service will notify marketers affiliated with this consumer service program to delete your name and address from its lists. Since not all direct mail companies are affiliated with this service, you will still receive some junk mail. If one company seems to be targeting you over all others write directly to that company and ask that your name be removed from their list. Don't forget to also ask that your name be removed from any lists rented or sold to other users.

However, some things you get in all that unsolicited mail may be worth your carrying into the house. According to Washington State law, goods mailed without authorization are gifts. Unless you have agreed to receive more goods usually through a book or record club sending you trial offers, when you receive unsolicited goods in the mail, you have the right to accept them and keep them as gifts. You are not obligated to return the goods to the sender or pay for them. To help you with those book clubs, under Washington law, goods are not considered to have been requested if a person fails to respond to an invitation to purchase them and the goods are mailed anyway. Before you keep the "gift", you should call the sender to make sure the mail wasn't intended for your neighbor or, more likely, someone in your house who forgot to tell you they ordered the merchandise. Also, it truly could be a gift from a friend and the company forgot to put in the card.

For semi-snail mail spam, Washington state law also prohibits the transmission of unsolicited fax messages to anyone unless you have done business with the company before. Even if there is a "previous business relationship", if you tell them to stop by mail or fax, the spammer can't legally send any more faxes. You can sue and maybe get $500.