Somehow I managed to get on the mailing list for AARP, the Organization Formerly Known As The American Association Of Retired Persons But Now Known By Acronym Only. I probably put down a fake date of birth on an unrelated website that asked me for my age many years ago, and now every few weeks I get junk snail mail from the organization courting my imminent membership.
The mailings offer me all sorts of protection with no necessary medical exams. Perhaps I should hold onto the junk for twenty years (you just have to be 50 or older), because they may change their policies in the mean time. I will always have the “But it says on my application…” excuse.
I’d be worried if in twenty years organizations still accept paper applications through the postal service.
Published or updated January 24, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This reminds me of how people would put false information (or modify their address) and figure out where spam was coming from. So they put Ave instead of St. (when their address really was a St.) on one application so they could track every piece of spam to Ave to one source. Too much work though… but you accidentally have info on how AARP got you.
Funny! I wonder how you got on the list?????
I actually get mailings from them all the time too. I have no clue how, I don’t even remember puting bad DOB on anything. I do wish that I could retire soon…maybe they somehow know that.
I’m not sure how I managed to get on this list, but i’ll sometimes get womens clothing circulars. I know what you’re thinking . . . and I swear, I have no idea how I got on their lists.
apply, get accepted and cash out your IRA early ;)