I just received some junk mail through the US post, addressed to my nickname as I use it here, and ONLY here. Was I wrong that the club's privacy policy prohibited them selling our names and addresses to third parties? Not happy about this.

I'd send a message to TPTB and ask them.  Pat

Is it possible that your account was phished?  I would change my password if I were you just in case.

I've seen an increase in Spam mail too, but I don't think PBS has anything to do with my newly discovered Spam problem. I started getting bombed  within hours of joining Change.org and Foxsports.com...The Acai Berry Cleanse a** wipes send me 10 letters a day no matter how many times I report it as Spam to my e-mail service provider.

As someone else said. Ask about potential phishers. My account was phised 2 years ago on a blogging site.

Not spam - junk mail - through the regular mail, US post office. There's no other place the sender could have gotten this information other than via PBS.

Thanks, Pat. I did contact them. I was looking for a way to contact them and thought they answered questions somewhere on the forums.

Not necessarily PBS - but possibly a PBS member who sent you a book and therefore got your PBS information? I've gotten chain letters and pyramid scheme letters from PBS members in the past.

Based on Privacy Policy located at the bottom of most pages, I'd say it isn't PBS. It's more likely what Bren talked about above .

Bren, that's nasty.  Saving your address from shipping books?  I hope you reported them.  Sounds like Catalina will not be able to trace it backwards.  Or someone might have used a program to print labels and the program got a worm?

That is super creepy.  The thing that is worrying is that they can't un-know your address even if they are booted from PBS.  You can't get the toothpaste back in the tube.

Yeah, Bren's theory is thoroughly plausible. The thought that there's people who use this service to mine for addresses and invade our privacy is really upsetting.

There's no end to which some people will go!  It's so annoying and upsetting.  I'm not sure how they do it - but I know it happens.  What a pain.  I wonder if I should go back to using my PO Box.  It's just that it's so hard for me to get my books that way.  I have towait for someone who can go during office hours and my PO's hours are much shorter than the normal PO's.  Amazing and disgusting.

ruth

Just got a reply -

Dear Catalina,

We do not and have not sold your address information.

Have a great day!

The PaperBackSwap Team

On the bright side (if there is one), spending at least $2.35 per name and address for sending out junk mail is in no way profitable to a large scale operation.  It might be one unethical member sending you junk mail, but there's no way a company would use PBS to get addresses.  Is there a return address or state stamp that you could perhaps match back to a member that may be using your address?

Alternately, here's a website that has some great tips for stopping junk mail:  http://www.obviously.com/junkmail

Good luck, and please let us know if you find out more    :)

why woudl someone pay over 2.00 for a name and address?  can't they just open a phone book? 

It was from a religious/charity. I already threw it away so I can't say what state it was from.

I don't know that much about it but if someone got your address by paying the price of a book how many places could they sell it to? 

If they do sell it how much will they get for the information?  As someone else said there are ways for junk (snail) mail companies to find your information online with little effort.

I actually sent my name and address to a company for more information - no telephone number because I didn't want a phone call.  The next thing I knew I had a telephone call and the person said I received your note and looked up your telephone number.

So much information is public these days without you, and I mean all of us, not realizing how simple it is to find for those in the know to find details of your life. 

My guess is that they sent you a book at one time.  Maybe this member is part of that religious group and keeps the address of people they have sent books to in the past.  So they sent out a mailer soliciting for donations or new members to their group.