Disguised ads in the US Mail.

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

SF VIP
Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
If you've every gotten a government check, you know the type and size of the envelope. I got one in the US Mail. It said "Benefit Eligibility". Turns out I was "eligible" for life insurance. Then I got one with no return address, but my address was written- (No, real writing, not just a font). Turns out, I got 10% off a $45,000 truck.
I hate those disguised US Mail ads. There might actually be a real piece of genuine mail in that mess.
 

Get TONs of those all the time. I can spot a disguised piece of mail a mile away. If they're legit, they will have a recognizable return address.
 
My favorite are the ones that say: "Postman, please deliver this in accordance with U.S. Postal Service Regulation 139.b.2".

If you look up that regulation it says something to the effect of "Postman, if you can't deliver this to the addressee, feel free to throw it away."

Or the ones that blare "FINAL NOTICE!!!" on the envelope, the contents of which translate as "we're not going to send you this junk more than five or six more times!"
 

I recently found out that you can use "informed delivery" to see what mail you are getting each day. I always order my stamps online and noticed the ads for it. I signed up and now each morning I can see what mail is coming that day. It came in handy as I was looking for a denial letter from Travelers so I could finish my Fema claim. It was nice to see this morning that it would be in my mail today and it was. They have to scan all mail anyway so its a service they are offering for free. Considering how broke the post office is I am surprised there is not a charge. I would not pay for it if there were a charge so its nice to have a freebie!
 
terry123 said:
I recently found out that you can use "informed delivery" to see what mail you are getting each day. I always order my stamps online and noticed the ads for it. I signed up and now each morning I can see what mail is coming that day. It came in handy as I was looking for a denial letter from Travelers so I could finish my Fema claim. It was nice to see this morning that it would be in my mail today and it was. They have to scan all mail anyway so its a service they are offering for free. Considering how broke the post office is I am surprised there is not a charge. I would not pay for it if there were a charge so its nice to have a freebie!
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Ill have to look into that....thanks. Sometimes I'm not able to get my mail for a week or two when I travel to daughter's or son's house.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I hate those disguised US Mail ads. There might actually be a real piece of genuine mail in that mess.
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The Junk Mail is a nuisance, but there is a positive side to this trash. With more people using e-mail, instead of sending letters...for example...the business at the US Postal Service has been in decline for the past few years. This Junk mail helps keep the USPS going, and the cost of stamps at a modest level. There have been quite a few post office closings in the past couple of years, so anything that keeps a local PO open is probably a good thing.
 
We get a lot of mail that looks official and important and is nothing but junk. We got a free magazine subscription for a couple of years with our daily newspaper delivery, now the newspaper discontinued the promotion for the new year of the subscription, so we don't get it anymore. Not a problem, we took it because it was free. Now, we get these bold reminder 'threats' every couple of weeks from the magazine 'warning' us that if we don't pay for a subscription at a 'special' rate, they won't send the magazine anymore. Well...it's been months since they stopped anyway, and I personally don't like to be bullied or manipulated into subscribing to a magazine that I would never pay for to begin with. :rolleyes:

For a long time we're getting junk mail from people who want to buy our house. FINAL NOTICE! LAST WARNING!! Like they're doing us a favor or something. We have no intention of selling our home, and if we did, we'd do what was done in the past and use a reputable realtor for the sale. Lately I've been bombarded with mail and phone calls from vulture insurance companies that want to sign me up for Medicare supplemental. When I apply for Medicare, I'll continue to use my Kaiser at zero cost, but that's none of their business.

Cremation deals and pre-paid funeral ads are big too, it seems like an "old" list is passed out to all the greedy vultures and there's no escaping this stuff. :D
 
I've gotten some that look exactly like it's from the IRS. And all those envelopes that say "Time Sensitive" only to find out it's a random ad that is not at all time sensitive. I too, have thrown out important mail by mistake thinking it was junk mail.
 
terry123 said:
I recently found out that you can use "informed delivery" to see what mail you are getting each day. I always order my stamps online and noticed the ads for it. I signed up and now each morning I can see what mail is coming that day. It came in handy as I was looking for a denial letter from Travelers so I could finish my Fema claim. It was nice to see this morning that it would be in my mail today and it was. They have to scan all mail anyway so its a service they are offering for free. Considering how broke the post office is I am surprised there is not a charge. I would not pay for it if there were a charge so its nice to have a freebie!
Click to expand...

"Informed delivery" sounds interesting. I looked into it, seems okay. So I signed up. Thanks for posting about this! :)
 
You are welcome. I am still finishing up my late friends estate of which I am executor, so it helps me to see what is coming for the estate also. This is actually a freebie which surprised me. I get an email each day telling me I have mail. I then sign in and see what is coming. It took a few days to get the email going so I would log in anyway to see what was being delivered that day.
 
I periodically get an official looking "time sensitive" large envelope from.....The Lending Tree. I can get up to a $40k loan! Wow! I'd love a $40,000 debt....NOT. I head straight to the shredder.
 
Terry, Thanks for the reminder on the informed delivery service.

I had enrolled several months ago and forgotten about it. I signed in today and found that I needed to confirm my identity to start seeing daily updates. I'm curious to see what happens next.

I also found, by accident, that you can inform the credit bureaus in writing to remove your name from pre-approved credit offers. The other day after reading about the Experian data breach I locked my credit information with the bureaus. Experian sent me a form indicating that by locking my information I would automatically be excluded from pre-approved credit offers for five years. If I complete the form and return it I can be excluded permanently at all of the major bureaus. My borrowing days are over and I have a couple of credit cards so I think I will complete the form and return it.
 
I've had informed delivery since USPS first offered it. It's a good service for me because a neighbor's son is a heroin addict who is not averse to stealing anything he can get his hands on. When I know I'm getting something important, I watch for the mailman.

I recently got a series of "don't throw this away" mail from scammers providing a form to renew my car warranty. I don't have a car warranty, so that one was easy. I wonder how many people bit on that fairly sophisticated hoax.
 

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