Remove Your Address From CDW's Mailing List

calendar Oct 20, 2026 / · 6 min read · identity theft catalog privacy cdw mailing list opt-out direct mail consumer privacy direct marketing general security business mail privacy  ·
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Why a Business Reseller's Catalog Still Carries Personal Risk

A catalog delivered to a company's mailroom still lands on one named desk — a specific employee, a direct phone extension, sometimes a title printed next to the company name on the label. That personal detail is exactly what makes a follow-up call sound legitimate to the person who receives it, whether the caller claims to be confirming an order or verifying a payment method. CDW is one of the larger catalogs that reaches desks like that: the company sells IT hardware, software and services to enterprise, government, finance, retail and small-business customers, and a catalog or marketing relationship with CDW — print, email or account-based — means a name, an address and a direct contact method sit in its files the same way they would with any mail-order company.

The stakes behind that detail are real even when the name on the label belongs to a technology reseller rather than a gift catalog. In 2023, victims aged 60 and older reported $3.4 billion in losses to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, across 101,068 complaints, with an average loss of $33,915 — up roughly 11% on 2022. Nothing in that report names CDW or any IT reseller; it's an aggregate tally across every category of fraud reported to IC3. What it shows is the pattern behind the number: a scammer who already has one accurate detail — a real name tied to a real order or account — is far more convincing than one working from nothing, and a catalog label hands over exactly that pairing.

CDW publishes a privacy notice that explains how it collects, uses and discloses personal information, and it names a single contact for questions and requests about it: the CDW Privacy team at personaldatainquiry@cdw.com. That address is the most direct way to ask CDW itself to stop catalog and direct-mail offers to your name and to tell you what it holds about you, and it is the first step below. The other routes cover the mail that reaches you from companies other than CDW.

How CDW uses your address — and who else gets it

CDW

An information technology company providing products, expertise, and services to businesses.

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A company that mails catalogs builds its list from purchases, catalog requests and account registrations, and CDW's privacy notice is where it sets out how it handles that information. Because the notice routes privacy requests to one inbox, you do not need to find a separate mailing-list form: write to personaldatainquiry@cdw.com, say which mailings you want stopped, and ask what personal information CDW holds about you and who it has disclosed it to.

What's certain regardless of that policy's specifics is what a catalog or shipping label already shows: the recipient's name, the company or home address, and — tied to the account — a phone number or email linked to a real purchase history. Anyone who intercepts that mail, whether in a shared mailroom, a building lobby or a home mailbox, has that pairing without needing to see anything else. That's the same exposure every catalog recipient carries, independent of what CDW's own privacy notice ultimately discloses.

What to do: opt out and protect yourself

  1. Ask CDW directly to stop the catalogs. Email the CDW Privacy team at personaldatainquiry@cdw.com, the contact its privacy notice gives for privacy requests. Copy the name and address exactly as printed on the catalog label, ask that catalog and direct-mail offers to that name and address stop, and ask what CDW holds about you and whom it has disclosed it to. Keep the reply.
  2. Cut the rest of the catalog volume. The Federal Trade Commission's junk-mail guidance describes DMAchoice, run by the Association of National Advertisers, where you choose which catalogs and other mail you want. It stops most, but not all, promotional mail. DMAchoice's own registration page lists an $8 administrative fee for a 10-year online registration, with a mail-in option.
  3. Opt out of prescreened credit and insurance offers. These travel through a separate system from any single company's mailing list. The FTC says you can opt out for five years or permanently at OptOutPrescreen or by calling 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688); the permanent option is only complete once you sign and return the form you're sent.
  4. Use a mail-removal app for mailers you can't trace to a source. A service like PaperKarma lets you photograph an unwanted catalog and request removal without hunting down a phone number or address for every sender — useful once your details have moved to a list you never contacted directly.
  5. Shred anything with your name, address and an order or account number before you recycle it. A catalog label carries both out of the house; a shredded one doesn't.
  6. Consider a credit freeze if you're worried about account exposure more broadly. An identity-monitoring service is a separate, paid layer on top of that — neither one stops mail by itself, but both are independent of what any single catalog company does with its list.

Signs your information has been shared

An increase in catalogs from office-supply, IT or business-services companies you've never contacted is a sign that your name and address are circulating on a business mailing list broader than any one sender — it doesn't tell you which company originated it, including whether CDW did. A rise in prescreened credit or insurance offers points to the separate credit-bureau channel in step 3 above, not to a catalog relationship.

The warning sign worth acting on is a call, text or email that pairs a real detail — your name, a reference to an actual order, even the fact that you're a CDW customer — with a request for something sensitive: a payment-card number, login credentials, or a "confirmation" charge. An accurate detail only proves the sender has a record; it doesn't prove who they are. Hang up and contact CDW through a number or address you find yourself, never one the caller supplies.

Frequently asked questions

Does CDW share my information with other companies? CDW's privacy notice is the place it describes its disclosures. The quickest way to an answer about your own data is to ask the CDW Privacy team at personaldatainquiry@cdw.com what it holds about you and whom it has disclosed it to.

How do I stop CDW catalogs from arriving? Email personaldatainquiry@cdw.com with the name and address from the label and ask for catalog and direct-mail offers to stop, then back that up with DMAchoice for broader catalog volume, since the FTC's guidance notes DMAchoice stops most, but not all, promotional mail.

Will DMAchoice stop every CDW mailing? Not necessarily. The FTC's own description says DMAchoice stops most, but not all, promotional mail, so a direct request to CDW is worth making in addition to registering there.

Is a business-to-business IT catalog really an identity-theft risk? On its own, a modest one — a name and an address on a mailing label. The risk compounds across every company holding your details, which is why the opt-out routes above and basic account hygiene matter more than any single catalog relationship.

References

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