Spam. Don’t you just cringe at the sound of that word? I am definitely a hater.
I offer a great deal of freebies on this site and realized that a few tips on helping to lower the amount of spam you receive might be in order. While I am very selective on what freebies I do post, it’s nearly impossible to protect from all of those spammy bad guys.
My first recommendation is to get a junk e-mail address for freebie sign-ups. This not only protects your personal information, but also will help to filter the junk e-mails that you will begin to receive when signing up for free stuff.
Secondly, sign yourself up on the National Do Not Call Registry. I never realized how effective this is until we just moved into our new home and immediately began getting bombarded with telemarketer phone calls. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing, I would suggest signing up today. It only takes a matter of minutes. You can also use Catalog Choice as a quick way of stopping most catalogs from coming to your house.
Third, PLEASE be careful with what information you give out. When I sign up for a freebie, I typically only fill in the required fields and leave it at that. If a required field asks for your social security number or anything else that you feel uncomfortable with, then that freebie just isn’t worth it!
Finally, be sure that you are confident that the source of the freebie is legitimate and can be trusted. It was a dark day in the Ehret household the day that I discovered that I had been charged over $100 for the ‘free trial’ of tooth whitening product I had ordered. After dozens of unanswered phone calls, un-returned e-mails, and finally reporting them to the Better Business Bureau, I learned that I would never again sign up for a free trial from a company I knew nothing about. (By the way, my bank refunded me that money and I was incredibly grateful.)
That being said, please be confident that if a freebie looks even close to un-trustworthy, I will never even think about posting it!
Do you have any other tips for us about this important topic?
I was told that when you give a company your phone number on a freebies site or any other site, they have permission to call you at that number whether or not you are on the “do not call” list.
I use a fake name when sending freebies to my home. I also use a fake email. So on one can trace me.