I forgot to share this story from last week. We routinely get unsolicited mailings from mortgage and financial planning people. We generally just toss them, since both needs have been satisfied and we have plenty of options for new agents when we need to revisit them. However, last week we got a slightly unsettling mailing. It was hand addressed, as many of them are to get your attention, but I thought I recognized the name on the return address. I couldn’t recall if it was someone who I had a class with, or a friend of a friend, or what. So, I opened it to see what was going on. Inside was a single paged letter. At the bottom, stapled to the page, was a crisp one dollar bill and C.’s birth announcement from the local paper. Above these items was a pitch from a financial planner about starting to save for C.’s college costs. I thought it was a bit weird, and creepy. I handed it over to S.. She thought it was very creepy. So much so she got a little nervous about this guy tracking us down.
I understand the need to find new clients, but clipping birth announcements, digging up the parents’ address, then sending them a dollar is just weird. We try not to be paranoid parents when it comes to dealing with others, but it was almost like a warning signal: I know you’ve got a new daughter and I know where you live.
Has anyone else had totally random solicitations like this? Oh, we kept the dollar.