Identity Theft: Personal Documentation
What kinds of personal documents do identity thieves seek out?
Identity thieves are looking for bank statements, credit card statements. They're looking for old bills that you may throw away. They're looking for mortgage statements. They're looking for any possible paperwork that has any type of personal identifying information or account numbers, where they can then use that data, they piece it together, and they breed additional documents, thereby creating additional identities and compromising your identity.
What is "dumpster diving"?
Dumpster diving is when identity thieves will literally go in your trash or the dumpster of any of the businesses that you do business with and they're looking for identifying information that was on paper that was thrown away rather than properly shredded. Very often to this very day, homeowners and businesses are throwing away, way too much information that compromises a consumer's identity. So it's important that you make sure that you are shredding everything, and make sure those who you do business with are also shredding and destroying any data they may be throwing in the trash.
What is the safest type of shredder?
There are a variety of different shredders that we have access to. There are cheap shredders and there are expensive shredders. Always consider spending a little bit more money on shredders, because they always burn out. If you are using a shredder, the amount of shredding you're supposed to, then you want to get a relatively expensive shredder, because you'll keep burning out the cheaper ones and you'll have to keep buying new ones. So spend a little more money on a better shredder. In addition to that, make sure you buy a cross cut shredder. There are strip shredders that shred in strips, and there are cross cut shredders that shred like confetti. The cross cut shredders make it almost impossible, or virtually impossible for anyone to ever piece together that information. You also need to consider that a lot of the documentations nowadays, in the form of CDs and credit cards, also needs to be shredded. So make sure you buy a shredder, a cross cut shredder that also destroys plastic documents as well.
What kinds of documents should I shred to protect myself from identity theft?
Nowadays, we should shred anything and everything that has our name, our address, any phone numbers, any account information, anything at all, whether it's us, our clients, our family, that has any data whatsoever that an identity thief can use to get even more information about you or to essentially compromise your ID. For example, if you have a prescription for medication, and it has any account information on it, that bottle itself should be destroyed so the information on that label can't be used to extract data from the pharmacist. Expired credit cards are as vulnerable as your new issued credit cards because, generally, they have the exact same credit card number on them. The only difference is they have a different expiration code and, unfortunately, you can still use your expired credit card and just give a fake expiration date, and often that credit card will still work.
