phone and email spam

[cellio]

The FTC is going after telemarketers. These look like pretty much the same restrictions Pennsylvania enacted a few months ago, with higher fines and the addition of rules about abandoned calls, but they'll be on a national level if Congress approves.

That reminds me: The National Foundation for Cancer Research has joined the ranks of charities who spam (and who will therefore not get any more money from me so long as they persist in doing this). I bet they won't even acknowledge my complaint; the World Wildlife Fund and the International Fund for Animal Welfare never did either. The latter two are also sending me (via physical mail) a steady stream of stuff I wouldn't want them to spend my money on anyway, like calendars and plush toys and umbrellas and whatnot, even though it hasn't paid off for them. I've started to use their postage-paid reply envelopes to tell them to go away. (My "final notice" from WWF was three mailings ago...)

Comments

[ealdthryth.livejournal.com]

charities who spam (and who will therefore not get any more money from me so long as they persist in doing this
Here! Here! I stopped giving money to one (Sierra Club maybe) years ago because they wouldn't stop calling and sending solicitations. I have been battling with Habitat for Humanity about this for several years. I tell them that I will give them money when I feel like it and sending me extra solicitations just wastes paper and money. They promise to flag my name. It works for a while, then the mail starts increasing again. Sigh... I hate to drop Habitat because they do such good work.

[cellio]

Any charity that calls me gets told, once, to stop doing that. (Any non-charity who's breaking PA law now gets reported. This hasn't happened yet.) If I hear from 'em again, they won't get anything more from me no matter how worthy the cause, because the tactics are inappropriate. I don't use their own postage-paid envelopes against most solicitations, but anyone who spams me or telephones me without permission will get this treatment now, because nothing else seems to work.

So far I haven't been flooded by Habitat (and I've given them money and once helped build a house). They do good work; it would be a shame if they fell in with the bad-marketing crowd.

[cellio]

anyone who spams me or telephones me without permission will get this treatment now

I meant "repeatedly telephones me" -- as in won't take "go away" for an answer.