Report: Dead people get lots of junk mail

Published: Oct. 4, 2008 at 3:26 PM

LONDON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Nearly 60 million pieces of junk mail are sent to dead people in Britain every year, postal officials say.

The avalanche of letters from insurance firms, credit card companies and catalog stores grieve relatives of the deceased and can lead to identity theft, The Daily Telegraph reported. Families can reduce junk mail by signing up for a company's "Deceased Preference Service," the British newspaper noted

Experts say sending junk mail direct, however, is on the decline because sending e-mail is cheaper, more environmentally friendly and may produce better results than sending unsolicited junk mail to a person's door, the Telegraph reported.

"The days of mass mailing are well and truly over," said Neil Fisher, a former direct marketing manager at Esure.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
New Orleans Hornets fire Coach Byron Scott (14 min)
Chicago students arrested after food fight (28 min)
Intel to pay AMD $1.25B settlement (50 min)
UPI NewsTrack Business (52 min)
Crude oil prices slide hard Thursday (55 min)
Unemployed grandmother hits street for job (58 min)
One Canadian cow sells for $1.2 million
fark
You can make your very own Tamiflu at home. I'm sure this will end well
Ohio couple married 61 years and died one day apart. There is no escape. Did you hear me? NO ESCAPE...
Elmo vs Spiderman vs Chewbacca: LA's superhero turf wars heat up again
John King to replace Lou Dobbs, says CNN. Dobbs' wife reportedly pleased
Guy's cell phone minutes run out, so he calls 911 five times to see if anyone will have sex with...
*POP*