Since we launched StayPrivate.org in June we’ve been receiving lots of comments, questions and requests for help from users of the service. As we’ve noticed trends in these messages, we’ve been making changes to the site such as adding in extra descriptions and help text to make it easier to use. We’ve also restructured our FAQ to include some more of the common questions. Despite this, we still get emails from users asking the same questions or encountering similar problems.
In this post, I want to go through some of these common problems and provide some useful answers – a sort of mini-FAQ.
Registration Problem: I’ve not received my activation email, why?
When you sign up, StayPrivate.org sends you an email with a link which you must click to activate your account. This is an important part of the process that allows us to confirm that you have given us a valid email address. Unfortunately, we regularly get emails from people who have not received these activation emails and need help to get their account activated.
I’ve looked at the last 80 occasions where activation emails have not been received and the most common cause (67/80) were because the user incorrectly entered their email address. Of these, about half are from mistakes in the last part of the email address (the bit after the @ symbol). We’ve had pretty much every combination of ‘btinternet.com’ you can think of: ‘btinternt.com’, ‘btinterent.com’, ‘at.btinternet.com’, ‘bginternet.com’, ‘btintrernet.com’ etc. Other common occurrences are ‘@live.uk’, ‘@g.mail.com’, ‘@hotmail.com.uk’, @talk.talk.net’ and ‘@wamadoo.com’. Please be careful when entering your email address, if it isn’t correct, you won’t be able to activate your account.
Another common issue is a user’s spam settings. We have had several emails from people who have their spam filters set so high that we can’t even reply to their messages. All we see is “Sorry, this email address doesn’t accept messages from your address” or similar. If you only allow selected email addresses to contact you, you will need to add ‘bot@stayprivate.org’ to this white list or you will not be able to activate your account.
Some people are using services such as BlueBottle which means we must answer some questions to prove to them we are human before they will allow the activation emails to be delivered to the inbox. While this may be a great way of stopping spam reaching your inbox, it also stops emails from our automated systems getting to you. If you use this service, please white list bot@stayprivate.org or you will not be able to activate your account.
Finally, we notice several people have used fake email addresses. You must provide us with a valid email address or you will not be able to activate your account.
Registration Query: Can I register someone else on their behalf?
Although we have answered this one in our FAQ already, we still get sent this question on a regular basis.
Yes you can register someone else. If they live at your address, just include them on the form when you sign up. If they don’t live at your address, you will need a separate registration.
At the moment we only allow one account per email address (although we are looking at changing this within the next few months), so you will need to use a different email address. If you don’t have one to hand we recommend you use one of the free web-based email providers for now.
If you do wish to register on someone else’s behalf, you MUST have their permission first.
Registration Query: I’m still receiving calls after registering, why?
Unfortunately the Telephone Preference Service cannot stop all direct marketing calls. You might still receive calls from companies you have previously had a relationship with (e.g. your electricity/gas provider, insurance company, letting agents etc.), and from companies based overseas. If you are receiving calls from one of these companies, you should tell them you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service and that you do not want them to call you again.
If you are receiving calls from any other UK based company, take a look at the complaints service offered by the Direct Marketing Association.
Registration Query: Can you assist me to transfer my $9million inheritance fund to another country?
I’m sorry, this is not something we can help with.
How to help us help you when you have a problem
If you have a problem with StayPrivate.org there are some steps you can take to make it easier for us to help you with your issue.
Firstly read this post and the FAQ – we might have already answered the question.
Secondly give us as much detail as possible, an email that says “It’s broken” doesn’t give us much to go on. Tell us what you were doing and send us any emails you have received from the website.
If you have having trouble activating your account or logging into the website, we can find your account more quickly if you send us your activation email (it has a unique code that helps us search our records).
And finally…
Thank you for all the comments we’ve received and keep them coming. We appreciate any feedback we get.

