Comments on: Bestiary of unimportant envelopes that look important

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:15:00 +0000

a lot of it seems to be geared to tricking people of my mother’s age

I was at a real estate seminar geared toward working with senior clients, and the speaker pointed out that for people over a certain age, the idea of throwing mail away unopened or not answering the phone when it rings was unthinkable. Because of course, they weren’t bombarded by spam in the 1940s.

By: curgoth

curgoth — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:29:00 +0000

In Canada, the equivalent post mark is “addressed ad mail”. anything with that on it, I can safely toss directly into the recycling.

By: ChickieD

ChickieD — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:05:00 +0000

I was asked to design an envelope like this by a man who owned a home security business. I worked with this guy at his day job and he was an excellent technician – he maintained all the research and development lab computer systems, which are all special one-off cobbled together systems that don’t come with manuals or a support team. It took me a while to convince him that this was not the way he wanted to build his brand. I suppose this works for the kind of sleazy fly-by-night places that are looking to cheat people out of money for as long as they can, but I couldn’t understand why a legitimate business owner would even consider sending out something like that. It’s like advertising that you are completely untrustworthy.

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:49:00 +0000

Most of the time I don’t even recycle bullshit spam that arrives in this sort of packaging. This crap goes right into the wood stove.

By: John Hoffman

John Hoffman — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:05:00 +0000

This why my shredder named “Fawn” is within arm’s reach of my work station!

By: SamSam

SamSam — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:38:00 +0000

I just activated my most recent credit card, and had to call to give the last four digits of my social.

Social Security Numbers are quite easy to find, and I bet even easier to buy online. So just find or more in your neighborhood, check their mail every-so-often, and grab their new cards and activate them.

Maybe a little risky (checking mailboxes), but hardly impossible.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:26:00 +0000

I thought I was the only one who was fascinated by these envelopes!
As a designer myself, I find their design really ingenious. I recently started having my mother’s mail diverted to my address (she having Alzheimer’s and is prone to losing important mail) and have been getting a ton of these “important” mails. The design is quite ingenious, and I note that a lot of it seems to be geared to tricking people of my mother’s age…a population more dependent on institutional aid (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc.). The “official” design of these things make the actual real government mail seem unimportant. It’s equally entertaining and foul.

By: Lemoutan

Lemoutan — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 08:51:00 +0000

No business that starts its relationship with me by trying to trick me is ever going to get any business from me. …

Yep. I’ve only given my business to those who succeeded in tricking me without my noticing.

By: James Churchill

James Churchill — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 08:20:00 +0000

Absolutely. I’ve *never* seen a bill or other actually important mail item that had any of this crap written on it. Conversely, *every* item that did was junk.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:25:00 +0000

I take the letter out of your mailbox, hack your land line from outside and I’m ready to go diamond shopping.

By: kmoser

kmoser — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:46:00 +0000

Any mail that isn’t sent certified is usually fine to dispose of. Sure, you may lose a few checks that way, but you’ll never have to worry about postal spam.

By: kmoser

kmoser — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:45:00 +0000

It’s never a good idea to advertise that an envelope contains a credit card, but AmEx (and likely other credit) cards are never ready-to-use; they must first be activated by the owner, who presumably either calls from their home phone and/or provides some personal information that your random mail thief most likely isn’t privvy to.

By: Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat

Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:28:00 +0000

In the USA, “First Class Mail” postage means it’s probably worth opening, while “Standard Mail” means that it is — by regulation — definitely NOT a check, invoice, or personal correspondence.

I wish the USPS followed Canada’s example in using the easily understood term “Admail” rather than the opaquely euphemistic, advertiser-friendly “Standard Mail” moniker.

By: Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat

Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:19:00 +0000

Word. ”Pre-Sorted Standard” postage is a 100% reliable indicator that the letter can safely be thrown away.

The Post Office actually REQUIRES all personal correspondence, checks, invoices, etc to be sent “First Class” and not as “Standard” mail.

By: Vincenzo Ravina

Vincenzo Ravina — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:40:00 +0000

Don’t security uniforms often have badges and other markings to make them look important and official, without directly aping the badges and markings of real police? Similar idea, I think.

By: agonist

agonist — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:59:00 +0000

I hate those letters and I know they’re junk but I still open them anyway because some weird form of OCD compels me to. I then curse as I crumple and toss them into the trash.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:47:00 +0000

My cousin finally stopped deicing my aunt and uncle’s driveway so that they couldn’t make it to the mailbox for at least part of the year.

By: Timmo Warner

Timmo Warner — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:33:00 +0000

In Canada I just look at the top right. If it says “Addressed Admail” I toss it unopened. If it says lettermail, it stays.

Makes it especially easy since I get both types from my bank.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:20:00 +0000

I believe the biological term for all this is “aggressive mimicry”.

Can we look forward to Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam in Junk Mail?

By: JohnQPublic

JohnQPublic — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:02:00 +0000

why is it that impersonating an officer is a crime but impersonating official government mail for economic gain is not?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:49:00 +0000

Wait until the day that you throw out all her laundry by mistake.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:48:00 +0000

I think that’s the point. Amex doesn’t want to send you an envelope that says HERE’S YOUR NEW AMEX PLATINUM CARD – READY TO USE!!!

By: C W

C W — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:38:00 +0000

“No business that starts its relationship with me by trying to trick me is ever going to get any business from me. It’s as simple as that. Same goes for spammers.”

They’re marketing directly to the stupid, for all the people they cast a net to, they’re hoping to get a much smaller percentage of respondents.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:25:00 +0000

Another pet peeve: letters and emails that say “Personal Letter”. Have you ever gotten an actual personal letter that said “Personal Letter” on it?

I could easily imagine my mother doing that.

By: CliffordS

CliffordS — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:19:00 +0000

These should be illegal. My elderly parents get these frequently and it causes nothing but distress for them.

By: Bruce Arthurs

Bruce Arthurs — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:42:00 +0000

When I was working for USPS, these came thru all the time. Particularly notable were the ones that did a semi-imitation of Express Mail envelopes. I called those types “The Phony Express”.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:26:00 +0000

If it’s not Netflix or from someone I know, it’s junk.

By: blueelm

blueelm — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:23:00 +0000

These drive me crazy because they make it easier for me to miss the important ones that look unimportant. I kept throwing out my insurance checks and then having to have them re-issued for a while.

And yeah, they’re funny until they trick some one really vulnerable. Before we figured out my grandfather had alzheimers I figure these kinds of companies scammed about 10k from him. That’s 10k that could have been used towards his nursing home and hospice stay while he died of the disease that made them richer.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:06:00 +0000

Hey, you may already be a winner

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:51:00 +0000

These envelopes used to amuse me, until a barely-literate neighbor showed me one and asked me if she was in trouble.