# Does the USPS sell you out to junk mailers when you have your mail forwarded? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-usps-sell-you-out-to-junk-mailers-when-you-have-your-mail-forwarded/449117 "2008-05-13T01:36:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-usps-sell-you-out-to-junk-mailers-when-you-have-your-mail-forwarded/449117/1 "2008-05-13T01:36:17Z")
I getting a bunch of junk mail at a temporary residence with my name on it. This is odd, because I’m not here in any official capacity (no formal lease, no utilities in my name) and most of my important mail goes to a PO Box. I’ve tracked the address seller; an outfit called ‘Welcome Wagon’. I have yet to find out who gave my address to these jerks in the first place. The only people that would have a name associated with this address are: 1. The postal service, via the change of address form 2. Comcast, this wouldn’t surprise me 3. The city library, not very likely If it’s the post office, I won’t be forwarding any mail when I move again, which will be soon. If it’s Comcast, well, you can’t fight city hall while watching 200 channels. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-usps-sell-you-out-to-junk-mailers-when-you-have-your-mail-forwarded/449117/2 "2008-05-13T02:00:25Z")
Yes. The main effect of the official USPS change-of-address cards is to give your new address to direct mailers. [Cite.](http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm#6) > [@](#): > > The U.S. Postal Service provides the addresses from its Change of Address cards to mailers who have your old name and address. This often includes the major marketing and financial companies. The Postal Service’s goal is to have less misaddressed mail. This is one way unsolicited mail is able to follow you to your new address. > > If this concerns you, you might consider not filling out the Change of Address card (USPS Form 3575) when you move. You must be sure to contact all your correspondents individually so you are able to continue to receive bills, account statements, correspondence from friends and family, and other important mail. ---
**Author:** ![Aquaria](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Aquaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquaria)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-usps-sell-you-out-to-junk-mailers-when-you-have-your-mail-forwarded/449117/3 "2013-03-24T22:59:57Z")
> [@T\_SQUARE](#): > > I getting a bunch of junk mail at a temporary residence with my name on it. This is odd, because I’m not here in any official capacity (no formal lease, no utilities in my name) and most of my important mail goes to a PO Box. > > I’ve tracked the address seller; an outfit called ‘Welcome Wagon’. I have yet to find out who gave my address to these jerks in the first place. The only people that would have a name associated with this address are: > > 1. The postal service, via the change of address form > 2. Comcast, this wouldn’t surprise me > 3. The city library, not very likely > If it’s the post office, I won’t be forwarding any mail when I move again, which will be soon. If it’s Comcast, well, you can’t fight city hall while watching 200 channels. No, the USPS did not sell you out to the junk mailers. Did you move into a completely new residence, rather than with your parents or a friend? Guess what? Your mortgage lender and landlord gave your name to mailing lists, ESPECIALLY WELCOME WAGON! In fact, the chief supplier of names to Welcome Wagon is :::: Drumroll please::: MORTGAGE COMPANIES! I’ve bought and sold four houses. Every time I get a new one, I get the Welcome Wagon. We also get tons of mail for veterans, and you know it’s not VA who gave out the info, because it’s all addressed to my husband, when I AM THE VETERAN. Now who would know we have a VA loan but not have any indication of who is the Veteran? That’s right. My MORTGAGE COMPANY! Did you get utilities? Guess what? They sell you out to mailing lists! Especially if they’re privately owned. Did you notify your credit cards yourself about your change of address? They sell you out to mailing lists! The USPS does NOT sell names and addresses to mailing lists. It is against their rules to do so. This has only been debunked a thousand times and idiots keep blaming an organization that has nothing to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-usps-sell-you-out-to-junk-mailers-when-you-have-your-mail-forwarded/449117/4 "2013-03-24T23:34:19Z")
> [@Aquaria](#): > > The USPS does NOT sell names and addresses to mailing lists. It is against their rules to do so. No, the USPS gives your address away for free – as noted by **commasense** above, to anyone who has your old address, they will freely give your new address. I don’t dispute for a moment that every other source you mentioned will happily sell your address. Except possibly _some_ financial companies, if they have promised not to, assuming they are honest enough to keep that promise. (I know. BIG assumption there.) My banks have all promised they will not sell my address. And I’m not getting lots of junk mail, other than the regular local supermarket, pizza parlor, etc., stack of flyers that they stuff in everybody’s box all the time. And I haven’t asked the DMA people or anybody else to NOT send me junk mail. I just keep a low profile. That said. . . I don’t give the Post Office my new address any more anyway. They’ve fucked it up in other ways about three times too many. I just notify all my correspondents myself promptly, thank you. In fact, I first started paying bills on-line several years ago (after resisting for a long time) because I got tired of Post Office fuck-up and bad service. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-usps-sell-you-out-to-junk-mailers-when-you-have-your-mail-forwarded/449117/5 "2013-03-25T00:04:31Z")
> [@Aquaria](#): > > The USPS does NOT sell names and addresses to mailing lists. It is against their rules to do so. Yup. They don’t do it. [They just contract out someone else to do it.](http://blogs.ajc.com/news-to-me/2011/10/13/usps-selling-of-addresses-a-privacy-concern/) > [@](#): > > Federal agencies aren’t allowed to sell or rent personal information such as names and addresses under the federal Privacy Act, but the USPS just signed a 10-year contract with a Massachusetts company, Imagitas, giving it exclusive rights to manage its change-of-address process. Imagitas sells ads to major retailers, then mails packets stuffed with ads to millions of homes along with the change-of-address letter. > > The USPS and Imagitas call the arrangement perfectly legal, and would not reveal financial details of their contract. > > Privacy experts blast the arrangement. > > “The intent [of the Privacy Act] is to allow citizens control over how their information is used when collected by government agencies,” said John Verdi, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington in the Times article. “In this case, you have a federal agency collecting information for one purpose, forwarding mail, and using it for a wholly different purpose, direct marketing.” > [@](#): > > This has only been debunked a thousand times and idiots keep blaming an organization that has nothing to do with it. Looks like the debunking needs some work. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-usps-sell-you-out-to-junk-mailers-when-you-have-your-mail-forwarded/449117/6 "2013-03-25T12:40:03Z")
> [@Aquaria](#): > > No, the USPS did not sell you out to the junk mailers. > > Did you move into a completely new residence, rather than with your parents or a friend? Guess what? Your mortgage lender and landlord gave your name to mailing lists, ESPECIALLY WELCOME WAGON! In fact, the chief supplier of names to Welcome Wagon is :::: Drumroll please::: MORTGAGE COMPANIES! I’ve bought and sold four houses. Every time I get a new one, I get the Welcome Wagon. > > We also get tons of mail for veterans, and you know it’s not VA who gave out the info, because it’s all addressed to my husband, when I AM THE VETERAN. Now who would know we have a VA loan but not have any indication of who is the Veteran? > > That’s right. My MORTGAGE COMPANY! > > Did you get utilities? Guess what? They sell you out to mailing lists! Especially if they’re privately owned. > > Did you notify your credit cards yourself about your change of address? They sell you out to mailing lists! > > The USPS does NOT sell names and addresses to mailing lists. It is against their rules to do so. > > This has only been debunked a thousand times and idiots keep blaming an organization that has nothing to do with it. Quite a bit of misinformation in this post. First, as others have said, it is the USPS. I used to work in Direct Mail. We would get change of address information from the USPS. The post office works very closely with direct mailers, and offers them many services, since that is where so much of their revenue comes from. Second, about companies selling your information. Many of them are all too happy to do so, especially magazines and the like, who sometimes seem to exist for the sole purpose of developing segmented marketing lists. Financial institutions, on the other hand, are much less likely to sell names and addresses. One reason is that there are many regulations that banks need to follow; privacy of customer information is much more protected in financial institutions than in other businesses. Also, banks are more paranoid about supplying prospect lists to their competition. Time Warner is happy to sell lists of Sports Illustrated subscribers, since most of the solicitations will be for non-competitive products like golf clubs, sports vacations, etc. A list of Citibank credit card customers, on the other hand, isn’t much use for targeted leads, unless you are Capital One, and Citibank isn’t very interested in supplying their competition with leads. One way that financial institution information could get disseminated is through the credit bureaus. All major institutions report to them (Experian, Equifax, Trans Union), and this information can be used in \*\*pre-approved \*\*offers (though not in a targeted sense, Capital One can’t go to Equifax and say “I want to mail a pre-approved offer to Citibank’s cardholders”). This information would not be used for non-pre-approved offers, such as Welcome Wagon.