Stop Junk Mail. Be Eco Friendly. Do Good. The GreenDimes Blog

Postal Mail Scam Series

Chapter 3:  I Need a Free Vacation.

Boy, do I deserve a vacation. I’ve been at GreenDimes, what, two and half weeks?  My blogging fingers need a rest. 

No, no, I can’t take a vacation, what would you guys have to read?  But if I did take a vacation, I’d take a free one.  Hold on, I’ve got my handy letter opener here (insert zip sound.)  Ah there we have it - a piece of mail that offers 4 day-3 night cruise around “Tropical Island.”  I love “Tropical Island” this time of year.  Sign me up.  Oh, this was nice of them.   They reduced the font size into this fine print to keep the info on one page…

“Pay a service charge for travel club membership.” Free – Pay?   Sounds a bit oxymoronic, but sure, okay, who doesn’t want to be member of something? 

“$200-$300 initiation fee?” 

“Monthly fee?” 

“$100 handling charge?”

“$50 fine print charge?” (kidding about the last one.)

Yeah, you guessed it, another postal mail scam.  Well I suppose if it’s in the fine print, it’s not technically a scam.   But the US Postal Service says you can also look forward substandard accommodations, and most people who join a fraudulent travel club will never receive anything.  Hey, that is a scam.

Your Junk Mail Blocker 3.0,

Sanjiv

Our Newest GreenDimer

Hello everyone!  I am Dan Estabrook and am thrilled to introduce myself as the new General Manager for GreenDimes. 

What does a General Manager do, you might ask?  First, I get to sit next to the coolest marketing staff and bloggers ever – Kendra and Sanjiv.  If you are reading our blog, you certainly know them.  I get to spend many, many hours with this dynamic duo everyday discussing new ways to communicate with you and brainstorming ideas to make your whole experience as a GreenDimes member better and better.

Second, I get to hang out with Andrea and the great folks on our Customer Service team learning more about the difficulties (and successes) we are all having to rid your mailbox of pesky junk mail. Third, I manage our stellar engineering team – these are the folks that help me think ahead to what we want the GreenDimes service needs to look like next week, next year, and beyond.  They take these ideas and turn them into something that is real (and the final product likely exceeds all of our expectations). 

Finally, I have the privilege of learning about and communicating with our most valuable asset – YOU!  Without YOU, we wouldn’t be waging our war on junk mail and we certainly would not have planted hundreds of thousands of trees all over the world!  I am convinced we have the best team ever assembled to change the world one supermarket flyer and pre-authorized credit card application at a time.

Now that you have a better idea about how I spend my day, I want to hear from you about how your life has changed since joining GreenDimes.  I know that with my GreenDimes service, I now have a much easier time maneuvering my briefcase, my 90-lb black Labrador retriever Louie, and my much smaller pile of mail from the lobby mailbox at the end of my day.  I am able to go twice as long before emptying my recycle bin, which reduces wear and tear on my aging back. 

And, I sleep better knowing that somewhere, a habitat is benefitting from 10 new trees.

Feel free to contact me directly to let me know what we can do to improve our service and make your life better.  Email me at dan@greendimes.com.  Thank you for helping us to reach 50,000 members!

Junk Mail Horror Story T-Shirt Winner Announced

This came from one our Myspace GreenDimers:

“My junk mail horror story... besides the inundation of catalogs from Pottery Barn (come on... do I really need 3 Pottery Barn, 2 Pottery Barn Kids, and 2 Pottery Barn Clearance catalogs PER MONTH?!!!) I have two semi-horrific junkmail stories. The first... I used to recieve (before Green Dimes of course!) about 10-15 fliers and mailers addressed to "Pool Owner", the kicker is we don't have a pool. The second even more horrifying junk mail story till occurs despite numerous phone calls to Scholastic... I teach 4th grade and receive approximately 15 Scholastic Book Order Catalogs PER MONTH at my school. They are all the same!!!! The final straw was a little PR note on teh back of lasts month's catalog, which I recieved 4 of by the way, that said they "were concerned about the environment and were making a concious effort to reduce waste and eliminate duplicate catalogs sent to teachers". Come on!!!! All of these are addressed to the same person at the same school. They really need to do something about their database and mailing systems. It infuriates me!”

Posted by Michaela on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 12:42 AM.

I love the energy.  Keep ‘em coming!

Sanjiv

Start Your Own Green Business

Hey guys.  I just want to remind you about our ridiculously easy referral program.  I’ve been here two weeks and I already have $20 bucks in my account.  Okay, I’m not going to collect because I work here, but you can!  It’s simple.   Once you order the GreenDimes service, you should shoot out a bunch of emails via our handy referral box to your friends and family (no hassling, just one email.)   Then, see who signs up.  It certainly helps them (less junk mail) and it helps you ($5 for each signup) too. Ready for the real kicker? It helps our green planet (have you seen our impact counter lately?!)  It’s also unlimited, like starting your own little green business.

Your green business partner,

Sanjiv

Hallogreen, take 2

So it seems that I am not the only Marketeer out there blogging about how to 'green your 'ween' this year (9 days and counting!). I came across a few more ideas today that I thought I would pass along to make things really interesting (er, green) at your casa this October 31st.

This from the Grist blog, Ask Umbra:

"...And don't forget last year's suggestion of gathering all your exciting but no longer used costume jewelry, books, toys, and music recordings, and adding those to the porch offerings."

Ha! I never even thought about this one... and at my digs, this could get ugly fast. But perhaps, like Umbra, you happen to have costume jewelry lying around? Or music recordings? Hmmm.

I suggest toys. And yes- even hip, city dwelling, 20-something trend-setters (have I gone too far?) like myself have these lying around. I am not making any promises here- but do you remember Monster, Inc.? And do you remember how cool 'Mike' was? Yes people, I have a plastic mini-Mike sitting right on my bookshelf. And I had never even considered giving him away, to anyone, until now... You know you've got some goodies-in-hiding, just waiting to be re-gifted in the name environmentalism- dig 'em out!

-Kendra

Postal Mail Scam Series

Chapter 2: Am I Being Audited?  Phew, I Just Have to Donate to a Politician.

This is what I’m hearing.  You get these real official looking, government mocked-up brown envelopes in the mail.    Goes in the open pile, right?  Actually, looks urgent, official, better open it now.  Then after giving yourself a friendly paper cut, you find out some politician’s looking for a handout, or yes, another sweepstakes.  Now you’re kicking yourself, maybe even literally, because you just watched Monk and you thought you notice the tiny difference between an official document and an official mockument.  

The US Postal Service pointed out an example where letters were sent from the F.B.I., the ultra secretive Foundations Bureau of Invitations (turned to be a high pressure real estate scheme.)    Okay, so that’s the worst offender, but how often have you seen, "Important Notice," Official Business," or "Open Immediately."

Well, you know who’s on the case.  That’s right, Title 39, United States Code, Sections 3001(f) and (g).  I’m sure you’ve memorized it like the pledge of allegiance, but in case you’re still paraphrasing, then jump over to the USPS and check it out.

Your Junk Mail Adjudicator (title makes no sense, so? It sounds good),

Sanjiv

Even the CNN logo is 'going green'...

No, my eyes aren't bleary from last-nights cocktails, nor am I colorblind. That CNN logo is green.

I flipped on the tube this morning to check headlines... wildfires in SoCal, snow in the Rocky Mountains, and a green CNN logo?

All of this is an effort to promote the series Planet In Peril, which airs Tuesday and Wednesday night this week. I'm going to try to catch it- and if they are williing to make this big of a deal about it, I'm guessing you should too.

Sunday Night Football, here I come.

-Kendra

Farmers' Market Redux

A couple of days ago, my esteemed colleague wrote about the virtues of the Farmer’s Market.  I know, there are a lot of nay-sayers.  And I’m all for a gentle ribbing (yes, we do wear pleated tie-dye pants, smoke out of fresh zucchini, and have hackysacker gang issues), but elitists?  It’s a farmer’s market.  You know, farmers, overalls, hard workers, 4am milkings…overalls. 

Now I agree, the superstore has its place.  I’ve got my Hot Pocket in my back pocket.   But how do you get the community experience?  Can you gossip about your neighbor at the big stores?  “Did you see what Judy’s wearing in the Ramen Pride aisle?”  Only, by the time you get there, you’re in the wrong Ramen Pride aisle.  Everyone knows that any good gossip worth its salt is within earshot of the gossiped neighbor in order to achieve a truly awkward moment.

So bring your GreenDimes Reusable bag (my most subtle product placement yet) and enjoy your neighbors.

Your favorite unwanted catalog, anti junk mail, non-profit solicitation, and other mailings man,

Sanjiv

Postal Mail Scam Series

Chapter 1: I’m Worth 8 million Spanish Pesetas

It’s true.  I am.  I simply have to claim my prize in a little town some 100 miles (kilometers?) outside of Madrid.   I don’t even have to go there directly, I just have to dial some 38 digit number, and it’s mine.  So what if pesetas are an unused currency (they use the Euro) that can only be found in museums, I could sell it to a museum.  Now I’ve long since trashed that scam lottery piece of junk mail.  What impressed me was how long I kept it!  I kept looking at.  It didn’t say I may have won.  It said I won! And to be honest, I was tempted a couple times, just to see…

“Don’t do it!”  Now I didn’t say that.  That’s the U.S Postal Service talking.  Last week, I reprimanded the USPS for their interesting Change of Address Form/Junk Mail tactics.  This week, I’m applauded their efforts.   Hey, I call ‘em like I see ‘em.

The Post Office provides all kinds of scam detection info. This week, I’m highlighting, “Foreign Lotteries in the Mail.”  And what I learned is this:

They’re illegal. There’s a federal statute that prohibits mailing payments to purchase any ticket, share, or chance in a foreign lottery.   Layman’s terms, you can’t send any lotteries in the mail.  Some of them look like their run by foreign governments, they’re not.  They’re run by what the USPS calls ‘bootleggers.’     And you know the types they’re preying on - the elderly and those who are financially struggling.   Burns me up thinking about it.

Your Mailbox Cleaning Service,

Sanjiv

GreenDimes at the Farmer's market!

I just got back from my weekly Saturday morning trip to the local Farmer's market...beautiful tomatoes, crunchy lettuce, perfectly plump raisins, white nectarines, oh my! But, alas, it's getting chilly and my favorite farmer was a no-show. Yes, fall has swooped in.

A fellow market-goer asked me this morning where I got my bag- my reusable GREENDIMES bag, that is. She watched intently as I pulled out my fist-sized pouch and unfolded it into the full-sized grocery-bag-beauty that it is. I told her to check us out- and that while she was at it, to stop her junk mail. She was impressed with me, I could tell:)

If you're lucky enough to live near a local Farmer's market, get out there while you still can! And don't forget your re-usable bag... it's a great conversation-starter.

Enjoy your weekend,

Kendra