WHEN THEY DON’T COME WILLINGLY, CRAM IT DOWN THEIR THROATS

A company by the name of Mintel Comperemedia has just released a report that showed “substantial” growth in 2006 over 2005 in credit card and insurance mailings. Just what we need… billions of pieces of mail going out with enough information to allow ID thieves to steal our identity and bank account. The article in junk mail industry publication, DM News, appears to be boasting of this 6 percent increase. However, I know that the majority of you do not shred these mailings, and just tear them up, sometimes only tearing the info page in half. If you do, you might want to look at how easy it is for the crooks to reassemble the pieces in Cockeyed.com’s “The Torn Up Credit Card Application.” I realize this is something you should know, but statistics prove that the general population refuses to take the time to securely destroy these mailings. For credit cards alone, more than 9.2 billion pieces of junk mail were sent to U.S. consumers in 2006. Top mailer was Chase, followed by Capital One, American Express, Citibank, and Bank of America. At least two of these companies have been involved in breaches of customers’ personal data in the past. The DM News article fails to address the fact that this colossal number of unsolicited, potentially way of life-threatening pieces of mail could literally wipe out the good credit records of hundreds, maybe thousands of American households. The word to focus on here is “unsolicited.” We didn’t want it, but they crammed it down our throats, so who should pay for the damages? Since the Banks mailing the solicitations refuse to accept any responsibility, it is time to seriously consider giving consumers control over their names and private information. Join my grass-roots effort and let me hear what you think.