These 4 Companies Will Pay You to Receive Junk Mail!

These companies are keen to know how long it takes their mailings to reach prospective clients, or if they ever receive those. So they hire what are known as “Mail Decoys” or simply “Decoys“.

You may choose to work as a mail decoy for companies.

Your job will be very simple. You just need to inform the company of what you received (the sender and whether it was a magazine, newsletter, or something else) and when.

How you report back to the company varies from company to company. Some may allow you to do the needful online, but others may expect you to call a number and enter a code from their mailings.

And for your efforts, you will be rewarded.

It is basically like getting paid for taking surveys, except, in this case, you are helping companies gather data on mails (particularly how long it takes a mail to get to its intended audience).

It sounds like a scam!

No, it’s not.

This is a legitimate business.

Companies want to know how long it takes for their mail to get to their intended audience. It has a direct effect on their bottom line, so they take it seriously.

And that is why they pay people to act as decoys and provide them with this information.

Am I going to be bombarded with junk mail?

Well, many do not like having such messages in their mailbox. That is the reason for companies to offer mail decoy opportunities.

Personally, I didn’t find it much of a bother.

In fact, some of the magazines I received had interesting articles.

What’s the pay?

Of course, you are rewarded for doing this. But the exact amount varies from company to company, and each company has a different way of paying.

For example, World Mail Panel credit points to your account every time you confirm receiving one of their mails.

You can then redeem these points for Gift Cards, PayPal, and other prizes.

On the other hand, US Monitor pays you ten dollars per month plus 25 cents for each piece of mail you receive.

Keep in mind though that this is not a full-time job or even a part-time job. You simply can not count on this as a way to make any substantial amount of money. It’s just some pocket money while having some fun receiving all kinds of mails.

Junk mail forever?

If you want to discontinue being a mail decoy, you inform the company and they will stop sending them to you.

Though, it may not be effective if you happened to order a product from one of the catalogs received at your end!

Companies that Pay You to Receive Junk Mail

There are a few companies that do this.

But be very careful as this industry also has scammers waiting to take advantage of you.

To stay safe, never ever pay a site to become a “paid mail decoy”.

Legit companies hire you for free.

They are there to pay you not the other way around.

Here are a few that I know and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend:

1. Quotas (World Mail Panel)
2. USMonitor
3. The Hauser Group
4. SBKC (Small Business Knowledge Center)

The best company, by far, is SBKC. Here’s a little more detail about their process and how it all works. USMonitor is not far behind. Read my full review of USMonitor for more detail.

SBKC Company Background

SBKC works with various panelists around the globe in doing market research on direct marketing trends.

Panelists (that is you) come from various backgrounds such as employees, producers, financial advisors, consumers, business owners and the likes.

The company gives out compensation to those joining their annual studies.

When you become part of the panel, you’ll earn rewards when you send out direct mail and email communications that you might ignore.

How SBKC Works

First you need to sign up, which you can do by going to their application form page.

You’ll get an invite to participate in a market research study where you send through these direct mails or email marketing off your junk or spam mail.

In return, you will be compensated for those items that you otherwise throw away.

For each mailing, you can accumulate up to 100 points. However, there are certain mails that pay more than others.

The mailings that are accepted in SBKC are constantly changing. But here are some of the stuff that they’re usually getting:

• Insurances like Life, Health and Auto/Property
• Investments and/or Stipends like IRA, Mutual Funds and 401(k) to name a few
• Mortgage and Loans like Personal Loan and Home Equity
• Banking like Money Market, Rewards or Loyalty programs, Savings
• Credit Cards
• Telecommunications like TV/Cable, Internet and Wireless networks from AT&T or Verizon
• Travel and Leisure like airlines, cruise and rental services

How Will I Get Compensated?

You have to be a consumer panelist to start earning participation points.

These points can be redeemed for gift cards which you can use from over 200 well-known retailers.

Since SKBC will gather all these mails in various forms, there are also methods where you can send the materials from your end to them.

In order to earn points, you’ll need to:

Direct Mail: Place all necessary direct mails in postage-paid envelopes that Small Business Knowledge Center will provide. Most of these mails need to be sent once a week.

Email: Send through all emails that the company required.

You also get to earn bonuses when you refer friends and have them participate in the program.

You can also earn extra points when you participate in their periodic bonus opportunities coming off their Consumer Panelist newsletter. It’s a good way to earn extra points minus the effort.

It’s also an advantage to participate frequently. Those who participate regularly can earn as much as $20 worth of points every 6-10 weeks.

If you’re a business owner or self-employed, SKBC lets you earn rewards faster compared to the regular ones in the consumer panelist list (because there is more interest in marketing mails and emails that are directed towards small business owners).

In order to earn points for your valuable gift cards, you’ll need to send a form to SBKC with your basic information to complete your Panelist profile. SBKC pointed out that all sensitive information is protected and kept confidential.

You may choose to opt-out in case you don’t feel the need to push through with the program.

How Do I Send in My Junk Mails to SBCK?

The company will send you prepaid envelopes.

Simply put your junk mail in them and drop them in a mailbox.

As for spam emails, you can simply forward those to their email address (which you will get when you join).

It’s important to note that they don’t want you to send them spam emails about lottery and gambling scams. They are mostly looking for stuff I mentioned earlier.

How about the privacy of my mail?

Privacy will always be an issue.

SBKC claims to shred all mailings that you send through.

For the many years that SBKC has been in this industry, there have been no privacy-related complaints from panelists so far.

Final Thoughts

While most people hate junk mail, I think this would be a fun way to make money while getting unique magazines once in a while as well.

The best part is that if at anytime you decide you don’t want to get paid for junk mail anymore, you can tell the company to stop receiving mail.

Are you going to sign up?

Let me know in the comments below.