In today’s society. you can’t simply toss your personal documents into the recycling bin, you need to shred anything that gives away sensitive information that you do not want other people to have. For identity thieves any shred of someone’s personal documents is enough for them to steal an identity and run amok with the victims credit.

Today’s identity thieves are smart, no longer do they walk into electronics stores and try and max out the credit card before you notice the purchases. Today's modern identity thief uses stolen banking and billing information for small purchases that you are unlikely to notice when going through your credit card statement (I know I don’t blink twice when I see twenty dollars spent at CVS). By not shredding your documents you are basically asking for someone to dig through your trash and try and piece together your billing or banking information and have them routinely steal money from you on a regular basis.

There are some documents that you should never just throw out or recycle. Even something as simple as your address should be protected because it can be used against you as a billing address. (If you have a publicly posted resume you should remove your exact address from it) Anything with your billing or banking information is fair game, this includes pre-approved credit card offers, atm receipts, bank statements, any document that have your passwords or pin numbers on it, anything with your social security number, expired licenses, state IDs and passports, tax forms and W-2s, pay stubs, medical records and luggage tags should all be shredded into finite pieces of paper, and the list doesn’t end there. Virtually anything that has ever had your personal information on it is more than fair game for an identity thief.

Online banking has created a paperless way of keeping track of your money, and many people no longer feel the need to keep a huge file in their home of their own knowing that all their records are available online. It is crucial to never throw out any financial statements without opening them. If you don’t want to keep your own physical records that is fine, but it is in your best interest to contact your bank and creditors and sign up for paperless statements. Most sites make it really easy to sign up for paperless statements. This saves a lot of trees as well. The fewer documents with your information on them that are sent through the mail, the better off you will be. Every month your banking and credit statements provide an open door for thieves looking to steal your identity. This may go against what a lot of people think is safe, but it is a lot safer. What if the letter is lost? what if someone takes it from your mailbox before you get home? Even though these are worst case scenarios, they are still possible and shouldn’t be seen as anomalies. If you stay vigilant and dispose of documents properly you should be fine.

One of the best ways to protect your identity is to shred every document before it goes in the trash. Even if it is just a meaningless doodle you should shred it, just to get in the habit of it. If your shredder only turns your documents into a few vertical strips of paper you need to shred it twice over so that the pieces cannot be put back together. A skilled identity thief will be able to separate documents based on the papers weight, color and bond, so you will need a shredder that has crosscut blades instead of just regular ones, this will make the documents get turned into confetti.

If you shred all of your documents you can take some of the worry out of having someone steal physical documents from your trash or picking them up on the street if you lose them. This is an important step to take, but other common sense best practices, like picking strong passwords and not giving any sensitive personal information out to people you do not know, need to be followed at all times.

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(312) 265-2542 http://www.cuttingedgedd.com