Excuse me, you just faxed me what?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, I’m sorting through the faxes that we’ve received at the today. Due to the fact that we’ve switched fax numbers with another department a few months back, we get a lot of faxes that aren’t for us. We also get a heck of a lot of completely and totally useless faxes that I have to sort through and trash. And they keep coming. And coming. And coming. It’s like the Energizer bunny in reverse. I fax them back to tell them they have the wrong number, they keep faxing us junk. So I was at once intrigued and appalled when this came through the machine approximately two hours ago.
Interview Request

You will spend roughly eight months of your life sorting through junk mail!
You didn’t ask for it…you don’t want it…In fact, it’s just a pain in the neck.
In 2001 alone you will receive over 700 pieces of junk mail!
During the next 10 years, that number is predicted to increase over 300%

How do you get rid of it? In an engaging interview Ms. (dumbass) will tell your audience just what to do to take charge of their mailboxes and telephones in three easy-to-follow steps. blah blah blah…

OK, so if I’ve got this right, you just junk mailed my fax machine to tell me how I can stop junk mail? hello, McFly, anyone there?

BTW, we will get way more than 700 junk faxes this year.
So, what would a good response to this be?

2

Looks like a pitch to a radio producer. Unsolicited faxes are the publicist’s stock-in-trade.

As for what to do, you can always always let them know they’re faxing to the wrong number, but given the success you’ve had with that so far, I’d look into a fax blocker that let’s you receive only from approved numbers.

3

unsolicited faxes of the nature you described are illegal:

here

It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States -
…
© to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or
other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a
telephone facsimile machine; or
There’s a way to file a complaint (I’ve done it, and it seemed to have worked), I think it’s described on the site I listed or check with the FCC, or call your local Attorney General’s Office (I did both).

4

Well, to me it was junk mail. To the other department it’s also junk mail. But they still might need it anyway. That fax that I got might actually be useful to them. They might want to go ahead and schedule her for an interview. Chances are not. Chances are they’ll toss the fax the moment they see it (making it junk mail), but it’s still not technically illegal. Just annoying.

I just thought it was ironic that it was junk mail on how to get rid of junk mail. I’m thinking about some sort of sarcastic letter to send back to them.

5

Dear Sir/Madam,

We would be happy to accept your request for an interview.
For only $28 per hour, we will happily tell you what you can do with YOUR fax machine in three easy steps.

  1. Unplug Fax machine
  2. Remove paper.
  3. Insert… (oh sorry… Hi Opal!)

yours…