Brief background – I spent the fat years of my working life in the “information business”, specifically public records/real estate data. Did a lot of different things - sales, operations management, and worked closely with a variety of customers. I know what goes on in the kitchen when it comes to usage of that type of data.
My 1st wife died early in 20214, and I relocated the following year to a different part of FL. After a while, I started getting solicitations addressed to her in the new location – one she never lived in. Those companies clearly used the household USPS Change of Address for that to happen. I shut those down by calling the offending companies and had several years without seeing any direct mail addressed to her.
But now, it’s a few months away from what would be her 65th birthday, and the Medicare-related mail solicitations are showing up several times/week. I’ve contacted insurers directly, as well as AARP (one of the likely sources) and asked she be removed. Local insurance brokers are stupid – talked with one who told me “it comes from public records”, ignoring that death certificates are “public records” and the Feds provide access to a file (Limited Access Master Death File) which, if properly used, would permit this to never happen.
It is clear there are incredibly incompetent direct marketing firms peddling these lists. After none of the firms soliciting the long-dead woman for Medicare would (understandably) not divulge their vendor, I decided to move upstream of the sh!thead “list brokers” and “mail houses” and contacted the major providers I know of - Acxiom, Lexis-Nexis and Experian and requested she be purged from the files. With the death certificate uploaded, approvals to do so came within hours.
Have to wait a month or so to know if this was successful. If not, the rampage of firm, but polite phone calls will begin again and I’ll start filing complaints with the FL Office of Financial Regulation. I’m glad I understand how this could happen, I’d be even more p!$$ed than I am if I didn’t have any idea what to do about it.
Has anyone else dealt with this, and how did you stop it? Any other “upstream” companies I should contact?
My 1st wife died early in 20214, and I relocated the following year to a different part of FL. After a while, I started getting solicitations addressed to her in the new location – one she never lived in. Those companies clearly used the household USPS Change of Address for that to happen. I shut those down by calling the offending companies and had several years without seeing any direct mail addressed to her.
But now, it’s a few months away from what would be her 65th birthday, and the Medicare-related mail solicitations are showing up several times/week. I’ve contacted insurers directly, as well as AARP (one of the likely sources) and asked she be removed. Local insurance brokers are stupid – talked with one who told me “it comes from public records”, ignoring that death certificates are “public records” and the Feds provide access to a file (Limited Access Master Death File) which, if properly used, would permit this to never happen.
It is clear there are incredibly incompetent direct marketing firms peddling these lists. After none of the firms soliciting the long-dead woman for Medicare would (understandably) not divulge their vendor, I decided to move upstream of the sh!thead “list brokers” and “mail houses” and contacted the major providers I know of - Acxiom, Lexis-Nexis and Experian and requested she be purged from the files. With the death certificate uploaded, approvals to do so came within hours.
Have to wait a month or so to know if this was successful. If not, the rampage of firm, but polite phone calls will begin again and I’ll start filing complaints with the FL Office of Financial Regulation. I’m glad I understand how this could happen, I’d be even more p!$$ed than I am if I didn’t have any idea what to do about it.
Has anyone else dealt with this, and how did you stop it? Any other “upstream” companies I should contact?
By the way, we got his at Costco, thanks to advice from this board, and if I need them that's where I'll get mine, too.
