If you could shut down one business...

[vdeane]

I have a self-inking No Longer At This Address stamp that I use on any mail addressed to someone else. Then I put it back in the mailbox unopened and the USPS returns to sender. I figure the hassle and wasted postage from getting their own mail back should be enough to make some businesses delete my address from the database. I still keep getting one lady's annual investment report booklet though. Guess the brokerage just doesn't care.

I don't think the post office actually returns mail with incorrect addresses - I read that they just throw it out unless the business specifically requests a return service.  I used to get a ton of mail for someone else in my apartment complex, because he liked to write his address down in an odd way.  Instead of X Apartment Complex Apt. Y, for some reason he liked to write X Apartment Complex Bld. X Apt. Y, apparently not realizing that "X Apartment Complex" IS the building number.  Many businesses got confused and started truncating the "Apt. Y" part, resulting in mail to "X Apartment Complex Apt. X", which is my address.  It was too the point that the post office would occasionally deliver mail to me even it was correctly addressed, which is how I discovered this in the first place.  No amount of returning mail through the post office or contacting my landlord did anything about it.  What did finally solve the problem was holding on to all of his mail and shoving it in his mailbox one Saturday.  After a couple times of that, I don't really see mail with his name any more unless it has "or current resident" in the address.