So this is about half of all the junk mail my 85 yr old mother in law has received in 10 days! The other half has already gone back into the mail to the senders and this lot will in the morning.Unlike she does, we are not responding with money or a signature, which is why this problem has got so out of hand for her. We are writing 'Remove Me' on the ones with return envelopes and then stuffing them as full as we can and not putting the required postage on them. On the ones that are just cards we write 'Refused' and do not add the postage. None of them have a return address on them back to her, just the letter inside so they know who it's from.
I checked with our Postmistress and she will definitely mail them out without any postage and tells me this will force these annoying junk mailers to pay the postage upon delivery. So they will be getting back everything they sent and more, plus paying to receive it and some are pretty heavy! One of them is going to Australia and another Air Mail to Kansas, so it's gonna make a point ;-)
The Hubster went in her house 2 weeks ago and she was surrounded by piles and piles of these scams saying she had won money etc. She is now sadly going downhill with dementia and for a year or more we have been telling her to just throw them away. But she doesn't, she keeps responding or worse still sending money she can't afford to lose. So we took matters into our own hands and our Postmistress has been giving it all to her son when he picks up the mail.
But it's wrong that the government doesn't do anything to protect it's citizens and especially the elderly who are often vulnerable, from this sort of bombardment!
Hopefully the action we are taking will get the message across to these parasites, the next time they will get kitty litter in the envelopes if need be!
9 comments:
Bless you and DH for taking care of his mom like this. These people need to be taught a lesson and you are doing it smashingly!
It's ridiculous, isn't it? That's why we have to have an idustrial size mail box, instead of that beautiful little vintage one at our front door. There wasn't such a thing a junk mail back then.
Used cat litter, I hope. :-)
There is something else you can do to help her, by taking her name off these junk mailing lists, go to
www.dmachoice.org
It takes a while before the junk stops, maybe a couple of months, but it does work.
Mick used to get all the junk mail and he opted out so they started sending it all to me. So I've opted out too.
I'm often amazed at how little "real" mail I get. 90% is crap.
oh yes, i hope this has a good result for her. keep us posted how it does. there isn't a day goes by that i don't get a credit card offer!
You have taken her cheque book and credit cards away from her I hope? I remember my parents had to do that with my father's mother. As she began to lose her faculties she was entranced by mail order offers for naff clothes and books and bought all kinds of junk before my parents managed to put a stop to it. I think there was something they managed to do in terms of having her legally declared incompetent - horrible thing to have to do, but necessary. I allowed them to refuse any more payment to some of the so-and-so's who had sold her stuff over the phone.
You can also arrange to have her bills (phone/electric etc) sent to you I think - or at least have those companies notify you before services are shut off for non-payment.
Does your hubby already have power of attorney over her affairs? That's a good thing to do too.
It is exhausting and can be a full-time job looking after a parent - just like BEING a parent!
Thanks for the tips, the Hubster is watching her accounts closely and is a joint holder. Right now not much else we can do as she is still in 'fighting form'.
I'm so sorry your mother-in-law is going downhill but I absolutely LOVE what you're doing with the junk mail. Fabulous idea!!
Oh Sarah, good for you for watching out for your mother-in-law. My neighbor was conned by these mail order charlatans and she pretty much lost everything she made from the sale of her house. We had no idea that this had happened. She had Alzheimers and just believed everything. So sad.
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