From: John De Armond Subject: Re: Good Sam Life Membership Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 12:51:08 EST Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel Ben Franklin VI wrote: > > OH Debbie -- > you forgot to enclose the 10 ounce flat of scrap metal in the envelope! Which would cause the article to be automatically rejected by the post office automatic sorting equipment. According to the little USPS class I attended when I first started doing 3rd class mailing, anything in a BRE (business reply envelope) that weighs over 2 oz is rejected. This is at the behest of the bulk mail industry to stop just such assaults. Sorry, bulk mail pays the freight at the post office; they are taken care of first. Just keep the envelope under 2 oz. That will still cost 'em almost a buck. John > > > I sent the whole pile of stuff back in their > >post paid envelope with a note From: John De Armond Subject: Junk Mail (was Re: Good Sam Life Membership) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 18:51:37 EST Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel deb wrote: > > On Fri, 12 Nov 1999 12:54:16 -0500, Neon John > <johngdNOSPAM@bellsouth.net> wrote: > > > > > > >Ben Franklin VI wrote: > >> > >> OH Debbie -- > >> you forgot to enclose the 10 ounce flat of scrap metal in the envelope! > > > > Just keep the envelope under 2 oz. That will still cost 'em almost > >a buck. > > > >John > > I'm sure it was under 2 oz. prob. not more than 1 oz. I sure hope > someone reads it. Wonder if the VP that dreamed this one up is > getting a little flack?? heehee Deb Not sure about the specifics of GS club but most high volume mail solicitations are handled by clearinghouses. Those BREs arrive at a mail drop where they're loaded on an airplane and shipped to third world countries, typically India and Indonesia, where the data is keyboarded by people working for near nothing. The raw datasets arrive back in the US either on tape or via satellite and the envelope contents end up as fuel for the peasants. Many of these keyboard operators speak no English and are trained, monkey-like, to push the "a" key in response to a mark on the paper that looks like an "a". Handwritten comments and enclosures are simply lost on the operators. This same system is used for payment processing. This is why you see the note on your credit card (among others) bill that says to never enclose letters or problem notifications in with your bill payment. My company was contracted to write the software to make all this happen for a large clearinghouse that shall remain unnamed. The distastefulness of that experience was one of the key motivators for me to sell the company, retire and start cooking pig and bending glass for spending money. The best shot you can take against these guys is to a) fill the envelope to just under 2 oz, and b) put known-bogus information on the form. A basic BRE costs 38 cents (or did prior to the last couple of rate increases). Two ounces is about 70 cents, if my fuzzy memory is working. Placing known-bogus information on the form costs them by causing subsequent mailings to be sent to undeliverable addresses. The bulk mailer pays regardless. The post office offers bulk mailers a service that combs their direct mail database and eliminates old addresses and corrects addresses for those who have forwarding cards on file. Thus, the bogus address must be "real" in that it must point somewhere. I like vacant lots. If the form requires a SSN, be sure to use one of the numbers the Social Security Admin has set aside for testing. Since almost every other number has been assigned at some point, using a number outside the test set may adversely affect the owner of that number. The test numbers that I know of are 078-05-1120 and the numbers in the range of 987-65-4320 through -4329. The first number is the one printed on millions of wallet inserts in the 40s and 50s and so SSA marked it invalid. Most software is programmed to filter out these numbers but at least it gets the form processed which costs the spammer money. John From: John De Armond Subject: Re: SPAM Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 21:35:46 EST Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel "George E. Cawthon" wrote: > > Whoa. We need some clarification. Most of the writings in the news > indicate that first class mail helps support bulk junk mail. Other way around, at least according to the USPS. I had to take a short course from the USPS as part of getting my 2nd class permit during the Performance Engineering mag days. We were taught that 3rd class, AKA bulk mail supported both 1st class and 2nd class, AKA educational mail. Apparently by a significant amount too. Very believable. Considering that even with the cheapest rate for walk-route sorting (the bulk mailer does all the work except walking the route and stuffing the mailboxes), the rate was still something like 18 cents a piece. T hat's a passel of dollars when someone like Publisher's Clearing House bombs oh, 100 million mailboxes at once. John |