Fitter International Catalog: Who Else Gets Your Address

What happens to your address after a Fitterfirst order

When you buy from Fitter International Inc., which trades as Fitterfirst, your name and mailing address go onto the company's mailing list. That list can hold your name, your address and details of your order. Its privacy policy says the list can be combined with demographic information and past purchase categories, and it "may occasionally be made available to other carefully selected companies selling goods and services that may be of interest to our customers."

The only screen on those companies is that their privacy practices must meet the Direct Marketing Association's privacy standards. Fitterfirst names none of the recipients and no list broker, and gives no figure for how often "occasionally" happens. A single order of a balance board therefore puts a named person at a home address on a list that can be combined with demographic and purchase-category data and made available to other companies.

That matters because a name and an address are the starting material for identity theft. Identity theft is someone using your personal or financial information without your permission, and your name and address are among the things a thief might steal. A mailing label carries both.

In 2023, people over 60 reported $3.4 billion in losses across 101,068 complaints to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, almost 11% more than in 2022. The average loss per complaint was $33,915, and 5,920 people lost more than $100,000. Tech support fraud was the most common crime type for this group, and investment scams were the costliest. Those figures undercount: only about half of the more than 880,000 complaints IC3 received in 2023 included age data. The losses are not broken down by how a scammer found the victim.

How Fitter International uses your address, and who else gets it

Fitter International Inc

Fitterfirst is leading the world to better balance with rehab and fitness training tools. The Active Office is our solution to the sedentary work day.

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Fitterfirst sells Pro Fitter products, balance boards, office products and replacement parts. It collects personal information at four points: when you shop online, request a catalog, register a warranty or enter a promotion. If you give a mailing address, you get periodic catalogs or event notices. The list data is also used to make the company's future marketing "more efficient."

Different kinds of data get different treatment:

• Email address: if you sign up for the newsletter, your email address is used only by Fitterfirst to send occasional information about seasonal promotions and discounts. The policy does not say what happens to an email address given at checkout or when you register a warranty.
• Postal mailing list: can be combined with demographic and purchase data and made available to other companies that meet DMA standards.
• Contest entries: "We will not sell any information gathered." That promise covers promotion entries. It does not cover the mailing list built from purchases.

Fitterfirst does not say whether it is paid for access to its list.

What to do: opt out and protect yourself

1. Opt out at the source. Call Fitterfirst's toll-free Customer Service line at 1-800-348-8371. One request covers mail from Fitterfirst and from other companies that use its customer list, and the company commits to keeping your name and address from being made available to others. Give your exact name and address, spelled the way they appear on the mailing label, and allow 6–8 weeks for processing. The "click here" option beside the number has no destination shown, so the phone line is the route that can be confirmed.

   For catalogs beyond Fitterfirst, there are two broader services. DMAchoice is a mail preference service offered by the ANA. It lets you choose which catalogs, magazine offers and other mail you get, and it stops most promotional mail, though not all. The registration page lists an $8 administrative fee to register online for 10 years. To register by mail, send the form or a written request with a $9 check or money order payable to the ANA to DMAchoice Consumer Preferences, P.O. Box 900, Cos Cob, CT 06807. The FTC's junk-mail page, dated July 2022, still shows the older fees of $6 online and $7 by mail. Catalog Choice is a non-profit service for opting out of catalogs and other paper junk mail: you log in, search for the company that sent the mailing, and submit an opt-out request.

   Want to stop all junk mail and reclaim your privacy? Optout.ws covers the wider picture.

2. Shred mail that carries your full name and address. Shred documents with personal information before you throw them away. Without a shredder, look for a local shred day in your community, or use a marker to block out account numbers. If statements with personal information come by mail, take them out of the mailbox as soon as possible.

3. Opt out of prescreened credit and insurance offers. Go to optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688). The major credit bureaus run both the site and the phone line, and the opt-out covers Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion. You can opt out for five years, which you can do online, or permanently. The permanent option requires you to sign and return the Permanent Opt-Out Election form you receive after you start the process. The site asks for your name, address, Social Security number and date of birth. The Social Security number and date of birth are optional.

4. Freeze your credit first, then decide on paid protection. A credit freeze is free to place and lift, and while it is in place nobody can open a new credit account. Identity monitoring services may tell you when your information shows up in a change-of-address request, which matters when your address is the thing being passed around. Identity theft insurance, however, generally won't reimburse you for money scammers stole or for financial loss from the theft.

Signs your information has been shared

After a Fitterfirst order, mail from companies you have never dealt with fits the sharing clause, which allows the list to go to other companies selling goods and services. Prescreened offers of credit or insurance work through a separate mechanism. The Fair Credit Reporting Act permits the credit bureaus to put your name on lists that creditors and insurers use to make firm offers you did not ask for. The same law gives you the right to opt out, which is what step 3 does.

If a bill stops arriving, someone may have changed your billing address and be using your information. Accounts in your name that you don't recognize are another sign of identity theft. If you think someone stole your identity, report it to the Federal Trade Commission, which gives you a free personal recovery plan with next steps.

Frequently asked questions

Can Fitter International share my address with other companies? Yes. Once you buy, your name and address join the Fitterfirst mailing list. That list can be combined with demographic and purchase data and made available to other companies whose privacy practices meet the Direct Marketing Association's standards.

How long does the opt-out take? Fitterfirst asks you to allow 6–8 weeks after you call with your exact name and address. An online DMAchoice registration lasts 10 years.

Does a prescreen opt-out stop catalogs? No. It covers firm offers of credit or insurance built from files at Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion. For catalogs, use Fitterfirst's toll-free line, DMAchoice or Catalog Choice.

Can I opt out for a parent or a deceased relative? Yes. DMAchoice has a Deceased Do Not Contact List and a Do Not Contact for Caretakers List for a dependent in your care. On Catalog Choice, you can submit opt-out requests for another person, such as a family member, the previous resident of your home or a deceased person, by entering that person's name on the opt-out form.

Is my email address shared too? For a newsletter signup, no. The policy says that address is used only by Fitterfirst, to send seasonal promotions and discounts. Contest entries fall under the promise not to sell information gathered for the contest. The policy says nothing about an email address collected at checkout or during warranty registration. The sharing clause names the postal mailing list.

Does shredding catalogs protect my identity? Shredding keeps your name, address and account numbers out of the trash where someone could find them. It does not take you off any list.

References

• Fitterfirst Privacy Policy - mailing list, sharing with other companies, DMA standard, email and contest terms, collection points, product lines, toll-free opt-out and 6–8 week processing
• FTC: How To Stop Junk Mail - what DMAchoice lets you choose, July 2022 fees, special lists; optoutprescreen.com and 1-888-5-OPT-OUT, five-year and permanent options, optional SSN and date of birth
• FTC: What To Know About Identity Theft - definition of identity theft, warning signs, shredding and mailbox advice, credit freeze, monitoring and insurance limits, reporting and recovery plan
• FBI IC3 2023 Elder Fraud Report - losses, complaints, average loss, victims over $100,000, top crime types and undercount for people over 60
• OptOutPrescreen.com - official opt-out site, the four credit bureaus, FCRA firm-offer lists and opt-out right, five-year online opt-out
• DMAchoice: Register - mail preference service offered by the ANA, current $8 online and $9 mail-in fees for a 10-year registration, mailing address
• Catalog Choice: Search for Companies - the Catalog Choice opt-out search page
• Catalog Choice FAQ - non-profit status, how to submit an opt-out, opting out for another person or a deceased person