USPS Evolution Of 'Junk Mail'

Being a geeky kind of guy, I signed up for the free USPS 'Informed Delivery' service. This service is a digital preview your mail and your packages that the USPS sends you each morning. The email contains greyscale (typically) images of the exterior, address side of letter-sized mail pieces and track packages. These images were automatically being harvested by the USPS scanning equipment so emailing the images to postal customers every morning is not a stretch for them.

One of the interesting things I have seen done with this service is identifying a 'marker monkey' since it was easy to show the postal inspector that the envelope was unmarked when it was scanned but landed in the mailbox with Sharpie marks. This allowed them to ID the culprit since only 1-2 humans handled the package during that time frame.

It also helps when discussing with the local postmaster non-delivery issues...a bit hard to deny that the mailman isn't slacking with 'Informed Delivery' evidence in hand.

But in the last week or two I also noticed something new in the emails…spam. USPS has figured out that if companies are willing to spend money printing and mailing junk mail, they might also be willing to pay for a live link in the 'Informed Delivery' email. So sure enough there are now including links with some of the junk mail as shown below. Note "Learn More" and note that this image is in color, this was a full color image of the actual junk mail we received.

Kudo to USPS for figuring out this profit center in the digital age. (I think!?!)
Don

Ha. I got the Lake James mailer yesterday too!

I noticed the same thing. I must say that I am a fan of the Informed Delivery service. In particular it is nice to have the function of reporting a piece of missing mail. Not sure what it actually does but I am hopeful that it means more than the ebay "Report It" button.

rogdcam,

Based on my personal experience, the missing mail button does absolutely nothing. It triggers no investigation of the missing mail, nor does it start any process at all. You still have to spend a lot of time on the phone... And you have to initiate it, because follow-up is, shall we say, lacking (i.e., promised return calls that never happen and etc.). Again, just based on my experience. I do like informed delivery because it lets you know what to expect for that day...

John

Just enrolled in the program, thanks for reminding me about this!

They junked-up the scans?

Boy, that was quick!

I tried to get Informed Delivery for the mail addressed to my post office box, but the service is not available for POBox addresses ... I imagine that they think that boxholders will be businesses, and that businesses will be sure to check their box daily ... uh, not so much.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

ikeyPikey:

I use the Informed Delivery feature with my Post Office Box here in Texas, so the service option is available some places.

Looking on-line, they apparently distinguish between residential box holders and business box holders, and current offerings are to residential box holder only.

Mike

I imagine you'll be bidding on that lakefront property?

"Liquidation" of lakefront property. You can't make this stuff up.