Why You Need To Shred Essential Mail To Stop ID Theft
Monday, September 6th, 2010Ever look at a shredder and wonder why you need to shred important documents to stop identity theft? Maybe you’ve never even seen a shredder or never considered buying one. But think differently, if you were the criminal then aren’t you more of a target than Mr Jones next door who shreds everything?
What do these criminals want? Why are you more of a target to them if your documents are just ripped in half or put into the trash whole because you didn’t want to even open them? The reason is simple, they want your identity so they can pretend to be you! Think about really important letters like those from government departments or your bank.
Okay so what about junk mail? You know the ones you put straight in the trash? The ones offering you the low interest credit cards or the low rate loan? Some of these letters have your information already filled out! This is a goldmine for an identity thief! In fact it will make his day and if you don’t shred it then you’re giving him a helping hand.
So basically anything with your personal information like your name, date of birth and especially anything with your social security number on should be seen as important as any of this information patched together could give the criminal a very clear picture of who you are. Also think about anyone else living at your home, even children’s details have been known to be used in the past by identity thieves.
Identity theft isn’t just about someone pretending to be you and that’s it, they can go on to use your information in schemes and plots that can lead to your name being associated with criminal activity from gaining items via deception to acquiring goods in your name on contract that will never be paid off.
The cell phone network would then start to hunt you down to make you pay for this and if you don’t have some kind of legal protection which most of us don’t for this kind of crime then you may find yourself having to foot the bill or even worse end up in a court of law.
So you may be asking why can’t you just burn your letters or tear or rip them up. Well this would put off some thieves but not those who are determined and also it won’t deter those who are just opportunists as they may well be able to piece that information back together. By using a shredder you’ll know that you’re one step ahead and your information will quite literally have been destroyed in a safe and green way.
So if you want to avoid getting into trouble with the law, with credit companies or even with debt collection agencies then make sure you buy a decent quality shredder, do your research, ask friends and look online for reviews so you know your details are totally destroyed before you put them in the trash and you’ll have nothing to worry about and can sleep safe in the knowledge that your identity is safe.
It is essential to shred important documents to stop identity theft. Get the low down on simply the best cross cut paper shredder in our cross cut shredder guide.