Deirdre

A few years ago my sister in law was victim of Identity theft, her personal details were taken from her rubbish bin. My sister in law use to keep a big solid box and in it she would have documentations on her house, for the bank, bills and many other documents. She was having a clear out and throwing out many of the older documents to make space for the newer ones, she assumed that by tearing the documents up that she was being safe however that was not the case.

Having put all her rubbish out into her bin she noticed the next morning that the bin was turned over she though it had been a dog or a cat and paid no more attention to it until a couple of weeks later she received a phone call from her bank asking her if she had make certain transactions in the past 3 days, the lady called out all the transactions and my sister in law was extremely surprised as she had not made any of these.

It was never told to her how the thief was able to obtain another credit card in her name however it was evident that the details had been taken from her bin and pieced together to require as much information as they needed.

Thankfully the bank was alert and noticed that there were strange transactions been made for a lot of money, if the bank had not phoned my sister in law there could have been more serious and personal items obtained in her name.

My sister in law now has a shredder.

styxx

This is a good lesson to take note that sensitive information should be properly disposed. Using a shredder can help. Also, mailboxes should be properly secured because thieves can easily take away mails containing confidential information (i.e. credit card account information).

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Deirdre

I do agree with you that people should dispose of their documents very carefully, a bank will always tell you to treat your statements like they are cash, you would not dispose of cash so carelessly.

My sister in law has invested in a paper shredder and I am hoping to get one myself, I believe this is the only form of disposing of documents thoroughly.

People who live in Apartment blocks will be targets for Identity Theft, thief's can access their mail box quite easily add remove many documents that are of valuable information.