Yesterday I received in the mail an envelope with an address label bearing my name and home address. Under the return address it said something like “sexually explicit material enclosed.” It was a flier for some phone sex number. (No terribly explicit photos. :mad: )
I can’t recall having received anything like this before. Any of the rest of you get this stuff? How often? Is the warning on the envelope to protect themselves against charges that minors might be exposed to the contents?
Do you figure they just bought my name from someone who maintains some list, the same as most mass mailers? Does the fact that they used my name suggest that they bought a list from some product/service I use, or could it just be a general list of mailing addresses?
I get those, except they come in two envelopes. The outer one is plain, the inner one contains the warning. I’m really surprised that yours had the warning on the outside.
Hell, I got home and my wife said “You got some interesting mail today.” She had opened the envelope and seemed pissed. (She has never opened mail addressed to me.)
I just said “It is junk mail” and tossed it away. Damned if I’m gonna get into an argument or defend myself over something unsolicited that someone sent to my address. Next thing you know she’ll want to know why I’m getting e-mails offering penis enlargers…
I work in the DM industry and it would be very unusual for you to get this coming from a general list. More than likely you have a product or service that is related in some form, potentially things like you ordered under garments from Fredrick’s of Hollywood, charged a web site to a credit card, belong to a nudist colony, sent away for pictures of Hal Briston’s sheep, etc.
Even the worst direct marketers (and there are some god awful ones out there) usually know enough to target people that would seem to have at least a passing interest in their product, otherwise it is a complete waste of money.
Yeah, the first thing to go through my brain was “What the heck did I do to get on THIS list.” But I can’t come up with a thing.
While I readily acknowledge having looked at a suggestive image or 2 on the computer, I don’t believe I have ever signed up for any service - certainly not using my RL name and address.
And I’ve bought a few things over the internet, but nothing that could possibly be considered sex-related. Mostly athletic supplies, or stuff related to my fishtanbks. The only message boards I pay for are this one and one on planted aquaria, both of which I pay thru Paypal.
We get Victoria’s Secret’s catalogs mailed to us, but I don’t recall the address. I’ve never bought my wife racy undergarments on-line or via mail, nor have I ever dialed a sex-service phone number.
No nudist colony. Heck, I can’t even remember the last time I bought a Playboy in a store.
My wife does all of our finances, so it would be impossible for me to hide any such expenditures from her even if I wanted to. Weird.
What about charities? My sister made a donation to a GLBT charity (it may have been an AIDS charity or a queer youth hotline charity) and that smehow got her on the “sexual deviant mailing list” and very briefly resulted in some weird mail until she tracked down the list broker and flipped out on them.
ETA: FTR, the claimed it was a merge error, and the wrong mailing went to the wrong list.
I’ve lived in my current house for four years, and we still get gay porn video catalogs addressed to the guy who lived there before us. So let that be a lesson to everybody: If you get gay porn by mail–and I totally support your right to do that–fill out the change of address card.
Maybe a “friend” signed you up for something as a prank? In college, I put a buddy’s name down to be contacted by the Marine recruiters, and later the Scientologists. That was a bit immature, but funny at the time. The Scientologists bugged him for a looong time. Anyway, maybe someone is trying to have some fun at your expense? I gather you’re not college age, but maybe you know someone who is a kind of a jackass?
