Royal Mail surveys question

custardy

ive seen RM 'test' letters which are actually using business envelopes
eg one load we had were in the name of one of the big banks

Hermia

Hello! I just wondered if anyone has been getting any dodgy junk mail? I am a member of the Mailing Preference Service and NEVER get any junk mail. Recently I have got a couple of dodgy pieces of junk mail (get rich schemes etc.) recently which I was surprised at. The thing that made me suspicious was that the address labels featured the extra initial in my name that I gave to the Royal Mail survey people and this is a made up initial. The mailings definitely weren't from them though. I just wondered whether someone who is a member also has their own business and just saw this as a way to get some more addys. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

claire757

Hello,

Bit of a cheeky question, but is anyone entering the Olympics competition they are running at the moment? I've missed question 11 which was posted on Tuesday and wondered if someone would mind filling me in.

Thanks!

geordie_joe

Chas wrote: »

I'm really confused now!

It sounds as though you are/were taking part in a completely different scheme to me!

I don't exchange mail with anyone (i.e. post to someone who posts stuff back to me).

I get a list of when/where to send along with stamped envelopes or prepaid envelopes. Sometimes I have to write the name/address on myself, other times I have to stick a label on.

I have no idea what is going to be sent to me, or who sent it, or where it was supposed to be sent from. It just arrives as & when, then I input the details on the website.

I've always forwarded the envelopes received, including the contents, once a week in the grey plastic prepaid envelope.

How long have you been doing it? After a couple of months of getting two envelopes per week I got bombarded with with packets containing letter to send to other people, and letters arrived from other people for me to pass on.

Maybe we are talking about different things, dos does Swan Lane Industrial Estate mean anything to you?

LittleVoice

Hermia wrote: »

Hello! I just wondered if anyone has been getting any dodgy junk mail? I am a member of the Mailing Preference Service and NEVER get any junk mail. Recently I have got a couple of dodgy pieces of junk mail (get rich schemes etc.) recently which I was surprised at. The thing that made me suspicious was that the address labels featured the extra initial in my name that I gave to the Royal Mail survey people and this is a made up initial. The mailings definitely weren't from them though. I just wondered whether someone who is a member also has their own business and just saw this as a way to get some more addys. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

The people who send those sorts of "dodgy" junk mail don't pay to use the Mailing Preference Service databank to filter out addresses.

Have you tried sending the items which have the "made-up initials" to the survey people to ask? Have they definitely said that it is nothing to do with them?

Given that we know that the initials are not genuine, I am surprised that anyone would use them in the way you think may have happened. If they didn't want to go to the trouble of finding the correct initial, it would be more sensible for them to use another set of random initials so that it wasn't traceable to the survey connection.

LittleVoice

geordie_joe wrote: »

True, but how many of them are set up so you post stuff to their home address, but when they post stuff to you it comes in an envelope from a local council?

I don't work for the survey company so have no idea!

But why do you think there are people operating like that? That is, why do you think that business panelists (ie those who send from business addresses and receive items on those addresses) are the same people that you are sending things to at residential addresses?

Some years ago (in the last millennium) I did work in a small office where we posted survey items - quite large packages - where they were like a "pass the parcel" package that was passed on rather than back to the survey company (don't know what that was as wasn't directly involved). I do remember that the member of staff who did this (on behalf of the owner of the business) had to log on to an internet site to confirm receipt and posting details.

geordie_joe

LittleVoice wrote: »

Given that we know that the initials are not genuine, I am surprised that anyone would use them in the way you think may have happened. If they didn't want to go to the trouble of finding the correct initial, it would be more sensible for them to use another set of random initials so that it wasn't traceable to the survey connection.

But they wouldn't know the initial wasn't genuine. They have paid for a list of names and address and expect them to be correct.

You only go to the trouble of checking initials if you know they are incorrect. Even then it is easier just to delete the initial as all you want from your junk mail is for it to reach a house where people live.

olly300

Hermia wrote: »

Hello! I just wondered if anyone has been getting any dodgy junk mail? I am a member of the Mailing Preference Service and NEVER get any junk mail. Recently I have got a couple of dodgy pieces of junk mail (get rich schemes etc.) recently which I was surprised at. The thing that made me suspicious was that the address labels featured the extra initial in my name that I gave to the Royal Mail survey people and this is a made up initial. The mailings definitely weren't from them though. I just wondered whether someone who is a member also has their own business and just saw this as a way to get some more addys. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

I got two pieces of dodgy junk mail in my 3.5 months on the panel. Since I've got chucked off I've not received any.

To be honest if you wanted to send someone junk mail you can easily remove the initials because as long as it goes to the right house someone in there will think it's addressed to them and open it.

geordie_joe

LittleVoice wrote: »

I don't work for the survey company so have no idea!

But why do you think there are people operating like that? That is, why do you think that business panelists (ie those who send from business addresses and receive items on those addresses) are the same people that you are sending things to at residential addresses?

Because I was instructed to send envelopes to Mrs Jane C Grey at 22 Cypres Drive and was receiving envelopes that were obviously local council envelopes, with their frank on them and on the back was stamped "If undelivered return to Mrs Jane C Grey, Accounts Dept, XXXXXXX Council Offices" etc.

Obviously I have made up the name to protect the guilty, but both post codes were very similar and looking on google the addresses were close enough for someone to work at the council and walk to work.

I also had then from hospital departments, a charity, a couple of housing association and an MOD department. The one thing they had in common was an named person to return them to if undelivered.

I don't know about the others, but for the MOD there is a central place to return undelivered mail and all units are issued with the stamp. I know some units have their own stamps made, and use them, but never with an individual name on them. If anything it would be the post not the person who currently occupies that post.

I'm pretty sure they would be caught, but that doesn't alter the fact that every day someone starts a scam that is well known, thinking nobody else has heard of it. There's probably lots of people who have joined and thought "I know, I'll keep the envelopes and use the postal system at work" not knowing these things are checked for.

ironed_out

I really don't think the so called 'dodgy' mail being recieved is so dodgy.
I've had mail before and phoned RI and they are true test items (you have to attach a red dot to them and return to RI) I have had items without an R number from catalogues,charities etc.
If in doubt, ring RI and ask them.