How to eliminate the hidden identity theft risk in junk mail

Posted by Joe on March 17th, 2008

One of the most significant and immediate benefits that many consumers see from an identity theft protection service is a significant decrease in the amount of junk mail that they will receive.

Besides being a nuisance some junk mail may actually help enable identity thief. For example, preapproved credit card offers sent through the mail could be used by criminals to perpetrated new account fraud against the intended recipient.

While we still believe that most consumers will greatly benefit from having their identity protected by a professional identity theft protection service, there are some relatively simple steps that consumers can take to eliminate the amount of unsolicited junk mail they receive from banks, insurance companies and other marketers.

In this guide we will detail the simple steps you can take to stop receiving unsolicited postal mail from financial institutions, catalogers and other marketers.

Step 1: Stop receiving preapproved credit card offers in the mail with OptOutPrescreen.com

Preapproved or prescreened offers of credit are unsolicited mailings by creditors, such as banks or insurance companies, sent to consumers to make them aware of a particular financial offer they are qualified for. These offers are typically for credit cards, auto insurance, mortgage refinance or other financial services.

The financial companies that make these offers of credit to consumers determine your creditworthiness by using information on your credit report without your authorization (this is called a "soft inquiry" or "soft pull"). While such inquiries are totally legal and do not impact your credit in any way, it is possible to opt out from any future preapproved or prescreened offers of credit.

The major credit bureaus, including Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, jointly created the website OptOutPrescreen.com to enable consumers to do just that. The site allows you to opt-out from receiving prescreened offers of credit for five years or permanently. You can also opt back in if at some time in the future your situation changes and you would like to begin receiving firm offers of credit again.

We recommend that most consumers opt-out for the five year period for two reasons. First, this process can be completed very simply online in minutes whereas the permanent opt-out requires the additional step of mailing in an opt-out form. Second, the five year opt-out gives you the flexibility of receiving offers of credit in the future if you decide after five years that you would like to receive them again without having to opt back in. With a permanent opt-out you would be required to opt back in through OptOutPrescreen.com if you decide you would like to receive credit offers in the future.

Here is how to process a five year opt-out of receiving any preapproved or prescreened offers of credit through OptOutPrescreen.com:

1. Visit OptOutPrescreen.com
2. Select either a 5 year opt-out from the list of options on the screen and click on the submit button.
3. Enter the required information on the following screen. OptOutPrescreen.com will attempt to opt you out even if you don't provide your Social Security number or date of birth, however it is possible that your opt-out request could fail without this information. Since the OptOutPrescreen.com website uses significant security measures, you shouldn't worry about submitting this information directly. Keep in mind that your Social Security number and date of birth are NOT REQUIRED to process an opt-out from firm offers of credit.
4. Click on the "confirm" button to submit your information to OptOutPrescreen.com and initiate your opt-out request.

Once your request is submitted your opt-out will be processed within 5 business days. You may still continue to receive prescreened offers over the next several weeks following your opt-out, but potential creditors will no longer be able to prescreen your credit for firm offers of credit.

It is also possible to process an opt-out request by calling 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688).

Step 2: Stop receiving other marketing offers in the mail with DMA's Mail Preference Service

While OptOutPrescreen.com will remove you from financially related preapproved offers of credit, it will not opt you out of other standard marketing communications sent through the postal mail. There is no totally fool proof way to eliminate all junk mail, although you can greatly decrease the amount you receive by managing your preferences with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

The DMA is a marketing industry organization that works with major marketers and catalog companies to establish best practices in how they market to consumers. They manage a Mail Preferences Service (MPS) that these companies use to determine which consumers they will send unsolicited postal mail to. The DMA MPS allows consumers to determine which types of communications they like to receive and those which they do not.

Here is how to set your DMA MPS postal mail preferences:

1. Visit the DMA MPS website at https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/mailpref.php
2. Completely fill out the web based form and include all possible versions of your name that a sender may address mail to. You should minimally include the version of your first name that you commonly use in daily life as well as the "formal" version of your first name.
3. Submit your credit card information to verify your identity. The DMA will NOT cahrge you for web based MPS requests. However, if you choose to process your request over postal mail there is a $1.00 processing fee. Because of this additional cost and the extra step involved, we suggest that you process your request over the Internet.

Once you have submitted your credit card information and your identity has been verified, yoiu will be presented with three options. You will want to choose either Option A: "Remove your name from individual organization lists" or Option C: "remove your name from DMA member prospect list".

Selecting Option C may result in you not receiving some pieces of unsolicited mail, such as catalogs or coupons that you may actually want. If this is a concern, you may want to invest the time and effort into selecting Option A. This will require you to identify every single marketer that you want to stop receiving junk mail from and, therefore, could be very time consuming. It also doesn't prevent you from receiving new unsolicited mail in the future since new marketers may decide that you meet their targeting guidelines.

We suggest that most consumers select Option C if they are concerned with the amount of unsolicited postal mail they are receiving. Just as with the prescreen opt-out process you can opt back in at any time, so if you feel that you are missing out on marketing messages that you really do want to receive you can do so by adjusting your preferences at the DMA MPS website.

Once you have selected the appropriate opt-out option and submitted your request your preferences will be updated immediately and marketers that subscribe to the DMA MPS list will stop sending you new postal mail. The DMA estimates that it will take 30-90 days for you to stop receiving all mail from DMA member companies because some postal mail campaigns are queued up several weeks or months in advance.

Again, keep in mind that the DMA MPS opt-out will not eliminate all junk mail, but you should see a noticeable drop in mail sent to you as a result of proactively setting your preferences.

Conclusion

It is relatively simple to decrease the amount of unsolicited mail you are receiving which will limit the waste, annoyance and identity theft threat that junk mail represents. However, it is only one step in proactively protecting yourself from identity theft. While we strive to provide consumers with useful and actionable information, we strongly suggest that if identity theft is a concern of yours that you consider an identity theft protection service.

Visit our free online comparisons and reviews to learn more about identity theft protection services that will help you eliminate junk mail and protect your identity.

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