Every year there are approximately 15 million Americans who fall victim to identity theft with losses totaling over $50 billion. 14 years ago I was one of those victims, someone opened various accounts in my name and racked up thousands of dollars in bills from several addresses based thousands of miles away from where I lived. Anyone with an ounce of common sense could see that I had no part in this, at the time of the theft I wasn’t even living in the US! Regardless of what proof I provided to the collection agencies, no matter how I tried to convince them that I was not responsible for these accounts they still wanted to get paid. I refused to do so and it took years for my credit report to recover.
There have been many great articles written recently which outline how to safely browse the Internet. You might be very concerned with protecting your online data (and rightly so), but what about all of those billing statements and credit card offers sitting on your kitchen counter? What about those 401(k) statements, receipts which came with your online ammunition purchases, paycheck stubs and medical documents? If you simply toss them into the trash you could be providing a treasure trove of information to those who want to steal your identity.
Through the years, I have been amazed at the things you can find in the trash. There is big business for identity thieves in personal garbage. More importantly, once you put your garbage out on the street for trash pickup, it usually becomes open to the public. This means that if I am so inclined, I can take that garbage and bring it home, which is exactly what I did. Each week I would snap on my rubber gloves and go through every item of trash: grocery store shopping lists, sticky notes with phone numbers, a private invitation for a little girl to a friend’s birthday party, and much more. As I continued to go through the managers’ trash, I was able to compile a list of their service providers: water bill, phone bill, gas and electric, cable, and so on. I could use this information not only to gain access into their lives but, if I wanted, to take over their lives.
You might be wondering if you can afford a decent shredder, I would submit that you cannot afford to be without a shredder! Prices for most shredders are reasonable, between $50 to $250 and they can be found at most local retail outlets. I would stay away from the lower end shredders as they can be a bit of a hassle to operate with respect to how many sheets of paper (or credit cards) they can shred at once and how quickly they shred. It really comes down to what you can afford, and I will concede that a cheap shredder is still better than not having one at all.
Once you have your shredder, SHRED EVERYTHING that has anything to do with your personally identifiable information (PII). Consider the following tips when shredding your PII.
Shred:
-Monthly bills. Even if you bank online, also shred payment coupons, which might contain your full account number, even if the bill did not.
-Receipts or other papers that show your signature, which ID thieves could use to forge other documents.
-Employer pay stubs.
-Documents that contain account information, such as statements from your bank, credit-card companies, 401(k) administrator, and broker and other investment statements. Don’t forget courtesy checks from your credit-card issuer or bank. Call that source and ask it to stop sending the checks.
-Anything that contains your Social Security number, including annual statements from the Social Security Administration. Don’t forget old identification cards, including an expired driver’s license.
-Expired credit cards, and prescreened credit-card offers and applications, even if they contain incorrect personal information. All can be used to obtain fake credit cards.
-Explanation-of-benefits forms from your medical insurer. They usually include your member ID number, which leaves you vulnerable to medical-ID theft. Also shred papers and labels with prescription numbers on them.
-Tax forms and tax-related documents more than seven years old.
-Any documents that list a password or PIN, and anything else with personal information that you wouldn’t want a stranger to see.
Consider shredding:
-All mail from your financial institution, including change-of-terms notices. Even documents that don’t have account information can tell fraudsters a little more about you than you might want them to know.
-Documents from companies you’ve done business with recently, including those from recent travel. Thieves could call you masquerading as a representative from one of those businesses to try to trick you into disclosing personal information.
The bottom line:
The last thing you want is to find out that your identity has been stolen months after the fact, maybe when you start getting collection notices in the mail. Protect your identity by shredding all documentation which could be linked back to you. When in doubt, shred it! I fell victim to identity theft 14 years ago and it took years to recover from, don’t let it happen to you.
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