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Three Things to Prevent Identity Theft
Royal 160MX Paper ShredderI have several paper shredders for my Houston insurance and mortgage business. Each is a different model and so far I like ..... Identity Theft is a major problem in today's world. With increased access to information the chances of your identity being stolen also increases. Identity Theft occurs when an individual uses your information for their benefit. They open new credit card accounts, or take over existing ones, rent properties, apply for loans, establish services with utility companies, write fraudulent checks, steal and transfer money from existing bank accounts, or file bankruptcy. If you don't want this to happen to you there are a few simple rules to follow, shred all your documents, track you accounts closely, and use common sense.
For Identity Thieves your trash is a valuable resource to find personal information. Just think about everything in your trash right now that has some personal information about you on it. All of these non-shredded documents could potentially allow someone to steal your identity. For Identity Thieves the old saying, "One persons trash is another's treasure" is true, and your trash marks the spot they can find it. To protect yourself you should shred all paper documents that have any of the following information, your name, address, phone number, social insurance number, birthday, sex, age, etc. Shredding these documents is a simple as purchasing a home paper shredder. Any cross cut paper shredder, with a security rating of 3 or more should be suitable for your home paper shredding needs. A decent home cross cut paper shredder will cost around $50 and has the capacity to shred 10 pages at a time.
Buying a cross cut paper shredder and shredding all of your documents is only one way to curb Identity Theft. Closely monitoring all of your monthly bank, credit card, and utility statements is another. Make sure that when you receive a statement you review it closely to ensure there are no questionable purchases or charges. If you do spot anything out of the ordinary contact a representative as soon as possible to notify them.
Finally, using common sense may save you from Identity Theft. For example, if you receive an email stating that you won a lottery that you never entered or heard of, and all you need to do to claim the money is reply with your name, address, phone number, sex, birthday, social security number, it's probably a scam. Or, if someone calls you on the phone claiming to be from a credit card company, offering some great new card, never give your information to them, always ask them to send you information to the mailing address they have on file, if they can't do this, it's probably a scam.
Experienced Identity Thieves often only need a few pieces of information to steal your identity. Think about this before you share any of your personal information. Identity thieves thrive on the opportunity to steal an identity. If you buy a cross cut paper shredder and shred all your documents, track you accounts closely, and use common sense, you won't give them the opportunity.
John Woodford is a proud contributing author and writes many articles related to Identity Theft and Paper Shredding. You can find more of John's articles at http://www.papershredderchoices.info
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