Capitol One- Get out of my Mailboxes!

I'm going to do a little rant here.

Three people live at my home. Me, my wife, and my 71-year-old mother-in-law. We own our own home plus have a PO Box.

Between my mailbox and PO Box every month we have to get 12 Capitol One Credit Card offers. At least, and that's between the three of us. I junk these in my garbage can daily. If I collected them for a year, I'd probably fill a large trash bag.

Today finally sick of seeing these card offers, I opened one up. There's an application it says my wife is pre-approved for a Platinum Visa. It gives an option of applying online and gives DW a reservation number and access code.

The second option is to call up a 1-800 number

I went to the website. It's a generic website with many card offers and links. No where to be seen is any place even on the link to input a reservation# and access code.

The 1-800 number to call is totally automated. No live operator.

A third number given is a number to call to opt out of these credit card offers. After a few preliminary questions about name and address, I'm asked for my SS#.

I hung up.

If this is Capitol One out there, they sure as hell have their heads up their ass. Wary of identity theft, anyone with common sense won't just give out their SS# to a generic website or automated recording. Whyl do credit reporting agencies give out my info to credit card companies? And if they do, why do they need my SS# to un-list me when by my very call they know my name and home address?

This smells and should make any thinking person not avail themselves of these offers. Who knows if this is really Capitol One out there? It's not paranoia, its' just the world we live in and caution with personal information is a necessity in life today. If this is really Capitol One, they need to re-do the way these offers are made. I may do some further checking on this, even contact the Company HQ. I can always give them a Knucklehead award at some future date.

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