A couple weeks ago I got this really cool free app (check out this post for more cool free apps), called PaperKarma. In a nutshell, this app takes care of all your unwanted junk mail. Their “about” page gives some great information about their motivation and purpose, so I just took a couple of screenshots and you can read it yourself. I thought it gave a good feel for the “personality” of the app.
Pretty cool, I think.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you simply enter your email (so they have a way to contact you- they promise no junk mail… that would be ironic!) and your street address. That’s pretty much it for set up, then you’re ready to roll with eliminating unwanted mail coming to your home.
From then on, when you open PaperKarma, this is the screen you will see.
All you have to do is take a picture of the “offending” piece of mail, being sure to include a portion that shows the name of the company. As you can tell, you can either take a photo right from that screen or choose one from your photo library if you wish. Once you’re happy with your picture, you submit it
The screen shows you the status of your requests. It only took a couple of days for the items I submitted to be successfully dealt with by PaperKarma. However, I recently got an email from them notifying me that they have had such an overwhelming response to this app, that they are experiencing some delays. They are currently in the process of making it all better, though, so be patient with them. It’s really a cool service… wouldn’t it be nice if they could do that for our junk email too?
Now I find myself hoping to find junk mail so I can “zap” it!
Twyste 
If I take a picture with this app of the junk snail-mail we receive, will it make it stop? Please say yes. Please!!!
Yes. That’s exactly why it does. It’s great.
Thanks for showing us this. Does it do away with solicitations from nonprofit groups, too?
Yep. One comment they made on the app’s site was that companies don’t really want to be spending money on something we’re going to be throwing away anyway, so they’d prefer to know and not send it to that address- makes sense. I would think that would be especially true for non-profits.
This does look good. Definitely one Lee and I will try. Thanks
You bet! I’m pretty impressed with it so far…makes me wish I got more junk mail!
I hope this is available for us androids.
Did you find out if they are? It seems to me that eventually most apps end up being cross-platform.
Yes! And I DL’ed it! I have yet to use it and I figured out why, my husband usually gets the mail as he gets home 1st. I saw a pile of junk mail in the garbage last night, it was the outside garbage so rather then dumpster dive, though tempted, I will have to remember to tell him not to toss the junk!
Oh good! I’m glad. Isn’t it funny how it changes your perspective on junk mail… I’m almost disappointed when there’s nothing new to scan! 🙂