Avoid identity theft by destroying your documents

The only way to prevent becoming an an identity or credit theft victim is to guard your personal information closely, and to destroy that information that you do not have a need for. The statistics vary, but some estimates say that about 10 million Individuals are victimized by identity theft every year. As technology becomes more and more a part of our day to day life, criminals are coming up with more and more slick ways to exploit the personal information of others for their own benefit - and their victims' loss. Identity theft is one of the most rapidly growing kinds of financial crimes in the nation.

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One effective tool, available at any office supply shop, can do a lot towards helping you avoid being a victim of this crime. As identity theft turns into a growing problem, millions of People in this country are at risk.

One of the best, and most affordable, ways to prevent theft of your personal information is to purchase a document shredder. Paper shredders can presently be seen at just about any office supply store and you may also come across them at a reasonable price at your nearby Wal-Mart store. A shredder used to be a gadget that one only saw at big businesses, like banks. In recent years, more and more consumers have been buying paper shredders for their own use.
 

The purpose of a paper shredder is to hold off would-be crooks from searching for and finding your personal financial information on any personal documents that you may throw away. Documentation that should be shredded could include monthly bills, bank card bills, old tax returns, receipts or just about anything else that you might discard that has information that pertains only to you. By acquiring a shredder, you can effectively render useless any such documents before tossing them out, as documents that have been destroyed can no longer be read. Searching through a stranger's garbage may appear to be a lot of effort, but opportunists do it every day.

It is often a good idea to keep some financial or personal documents for as long as seven years for income tax purposes. You ought to only get rid of financial documents when you are certain that you will no longer need them. You ought to keep receipts, earnings statements, W-2 forms and any additional documentation until such time that you can be reasonably certain that you will not need them any longer. You shouldn't throw away all vital paperwork. You never know when the Internal Revenue Service may decide, without notice, to audit a tax return you submitted three or four years ago.

Document shredders are not particularly pricey; you can purchase small models for only $30 or so. Economical models will do just fine, but for a bit more cash you can buy a "confetti" type shredder, which cuts the documents to much smaller pieces. Low-priced document shredder models are so-called "straight cut" paper shredders; it is possible that anyone with all of the shredded pieces could put the pieces of paper back together again.

The criminals who would make off with your personal or financial information are going to make use of a multifaceted attack, so you should use a varied defense. Shredding documentation is only one part of the process of preventing identity theft and credit theft. You ought to safeguard your information when shopping on the Internet and watch out for scams from telemarketers and e-mailers engaged in phishing attacks. This crime is easily avoided, so why wait?