Who wouldn't welcome the launch of junk mail stopperProQuo? Junk mail is both annoying and an ecological bummer. But something about the service sounds awfully familiar. Don't services like ProQuo's already exist? The answer is yes, although ProQuo simplifies the process slightly.
Stopping junk mail without ProQuo basically involves time or money. The Direct Marketing Association offers an opt out, valid with its 3600 members for $1. The major credit bureaus also offer a free service at OptOutPrescreen.com that will end the parade of credit card solicitations. Most advice found online suggests you contact directly any company that sends unwanted offers. That may be inexpensive, but if you get as much junk mail as I do, it's time-consuming.
Other organizations charge fees to stop junkmail: Non-profit 41Pounds.org charges $41 for its five-year service. Greendimes, meanwhile, offers a near-identical service for $15—and it plants 10 trees on your behalf.
What ProQuo does is offer a quick dashboard of all the free opt-out lists, though only about half are one-click propositions. The DMA button, for example, simply directs you to the DMA site where you pay the $1 and fill out the organizations form. For those lists that require you to write a letter, ProQuo simply offers a printable letter for you to sign and mail. All the avenues for stopping junk mail already exist, so it's hard to see what ProQuo adds, aside from aggregation. It's also unclear how the company is making money, although $5 million in investment from Draper Fisher Jurvetson would indicate there's a plan in place. I confess--I signed up. But print and sign letters? No dice. I'll hold out for ProQuo 2.0 to do it for me.
