Junkmail plan shuts the lid on posthumous post

The mailboxes of the dearly departed are likely to remain free of unwanted letters in future as the Direct Marketing Association gains access to the Government's deaths register for the first time.

Traditionally family members of the deceased have been responsible for removing the name from mailing lists and for cancelling memberships.

Administrative glitches can often cause distress for families trying to do so, as stories reported by the Herald over the years have shown.

Sometimes the mail keeps on coming.

But the marketing association will now tap the death register on a monthly basis for names it can feed into its own "name removal database".

Thousands of marketing organisations rely on that database to strip from their own records the names of people who do not want to receive unsolicited mail, e-mail and telemarketing phone calls.

The association's chief executive, Keith Norris, said 2000 names were added to the deaths register each month and all members would use the same information to update their files.

"We'll get monthly database updates which we will merge with our normal name-removal service," he said.

"Our members have to do that every month when they're doing an unsolicited outbound campaign."

Norris said he had just met direct marketing representatives from around the world, none of whom had mirrored the arrangements with their own Governments.

 

Deaths are registered at the Department of Internal Affairs which oversees the Births, Deaths and Marriages register.