JunkBusters.com is a great site to educate you and help protect you from those that want to steal your privacy. It's common knowledge in the industry of telemarketing that phone numbers are for sale just days after the phone company has given you a new connection. The Complete Direct Mail List's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know About Lists and How to Use Them for Greater Profit explains how information about you is controlled and then sold by the government for commercial use. Such things as your car registration, drivers' license, marriage, any children born, divorce, property, mortgage, and many other kinds of information are all fair game. The book is 744 pages full of the tricks-of-the-trade. According to the Junkbuster's webiste, "Besides your telephone, telemarketers can get information on you every time you fill out a warranty registration card (or provide the information online in the case of a software product), or respond to a survey, or inquire about a product, or of course, actually buy anything. This information will likely be included in at least one list. If you buy anything with a credit card, the merchant can submit the number to a credit reporting agency and obtain your name, address and phone number." Once they have this information, not only do the phone calls persist, but the junk mail starts to pile up.
With the advent of computers, the Internet, and email, there is also a phenomenon known as getting "spammed". Spam is basically electronic junk mail. Just like bulk postal mailings, companies can swamp your email address with all sorts of messages and gimmicks. I just recently received an email advising me that I could "earn" my masters degree without ever having to attend any classes. All I had to do was send them a check for $499.95 and they would send me my degree with a gold plated frame! Junkbusters Declare is a free web-based service that will help you fight all these invasions of privacy. They will provide you with a form letter that you can download, fill out, then send to companies. The letter asks that you be taken off their mailing list and that they not rent or sell your name any more. There is also a page that you can post on your web site that will detail the permissions you are giving (e.g. whether or not you will accept spam at your email address, etc.). This free service is practically global. Even if you don't live in the United States, they have a form to fill out that will work for you in other countries.
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