Everyone gets spam, its like a law of the universe or something. But when you think back, we always got spam. Way before the invention of e-mail, we were (and still are) getting inundated with leaflets, pamphlets, print adverts, TV commercials, radio spots and informercials until we could virtually memorise them. Trust me, if I found myself in a torture cell being told I had to recite the latest Yellow Pages advert or I would find myself strung up on the nearest available flag pole, I’d be pretty safe.

So, it stands to reason that you should be able to do something to retalliate. Threatening to blow up the headquarters of every mobile phone company in the country unless they start making real adverts, not just putting some text with a song which sounds like a 5 year old with attention deficit disorder made it using only their mouths without ever actually using real words, may well get you in trouble (yes, I’m looking at you T-Mobile). No, there has to be a more subtle way.

  • Get the address of the sender (usually a PO Box somewhere) and sign them up on all the business mailing lists you can find. Give them a taste of their own medicine (assuming they have a receive-capable box).
  • Most of these mail-outs include a return envelope of some description, usually with free postage. Take advantage of it! Send them back something, anything, so they have to pay the postage – they count on most people not bothering to reply, so if more people do then maybe they would see their money slipping down the drain!
  • Take the above one step further – I’ve heard of people managing to send large, bulky items back to the spammers filling your mailbox with useless tat. Stuff like bricks, crushed drinks cans and even lead weights have been used, just to drive up the cost of the postage which gets bounced back to the spammer. If any of these actually work, tell me!

These are but a few tactics. Why not get ingenious – as long as it isn’t biological in nature or an illegal item, you shouldn’t get any hassle for it.

Things I like:
Do you need Cold Medicine
Display Stands that will look fab in your shop.
For Limited Company Formation come to us.

Related Posts