How did they get my name?

Lists of names and addresses are routinely compiled by our companies from countless sources. If you have a telephone (unless you have an unlisted number), your name and address are available to anyone with a pencil and a piece of paper.

If you own a house or a car, your name and address are available from public records. So are such publicly-recorded events as marriages, births and divorces. All are available to anyone who wants to compile a mailing list from the source material. If you are a doctor, lawyer, dentist, engineer, teacher, you probably belong to one or more professional societies or associations whose membership lists show your name and address.

Have you joined any business organisations such as a local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club? Many of these membership lists, while not, strictly-speaking public records, are widely available to the public. It is just as likely that you have subscribed to a magazine, answered a survey that came with an appliance warranty, or bought from a catalogue of one of our companies. Your name, address and purchase information are automatically recorded on that company's computerised list, and it is very likely that you will hear from them again -- their goal is to build long-term relationships with their customers.