Junk mail/phone calls

A question about : Junk mail/phone calls

My hubby and I donate to a few charities a year and we ALWAYS opt for no further/other communication and for the charities to not give our details to third parties.

However, we keep getting telephone calls from charities we have not supported, as well as the ones we have supported. Similarly, we get junk mail from those we have supported and those we have never/would not dream of supporting and, in the latter category, we have even been allocated supporter/membership numbers.

Is there:
1. Any way we can stop junk mail/telephone calls?
2. Find out which charity has been selling our details on?

Thanks.

Best answers:

• I don't always give my real name, but use some initials to indicate what I'm signing up for, eg for Donkey Sanctuary I might be SDS.
  Would that be a start?
• Thanks Sue. We also GiftAid, so I guess it won't work for that, but good idea on how to weed out!
• I use a different email address for most companies. Easy to spot and stop the spammers.
  Bit harder if your giving them your phone number.
  TV program about charity callers a few weeks back. Seems the same companies collect for several charities and share your data.
• Yeah, you can normally tell them to remove you from their list and they are obliged to do it. I use to work at a call center and one of the things mentioned during training was that if they ask to have their name removed you do it. (This was at a call centre that does charity work)
• Any online contact you have with a company may result in your contact details being sold on if you are not careful to tick the right box. It is not only charities.
• We keep getting sent mailshots with our name and address on printed stickers. Would it be very rude and uncharitable to write back saying we already donate, we don't need to be harassed and use the sticker for the name and address details?
• Write back only if there's a freepost address to send it to. They should get the message eventually. Not very charitable as it costs them, but might help.
  Of course, you could just write "no longer at this address" on the envelope and put a line through your address. That doesn't cost the charity any extra, but may make them realise they're wasting money sending it in the first place.