With data breaches and malware intrusions common, it's no wonder people worry about identity theft. Plus, few of us can defend ourselves with an IT pro's thoroughness.
![[Intelligent Mail]](IMbarcode.gif)
Now while challenging passwords, current security patches, and such help, I'd suggest a faster payoff against identity theft is shredding the junk mail that goes in your trash.
One reason I tackle junk mail first is personal experience. The only time I've had my financial data "stolen" was with a seldom-used credit card to buy a gift from a firm back East. The transaction was entirely telephonic. I paid the charges weeks later when I got my credit card statement.
Then maybe four weeks later, I got a call from VISA asking if, among other purchases, I'd just bought $1,500 or so worth of software. [The buying rampage on a low-usage card evidently was quick to set off security alerts]. After confirming I'd bought no such software [or anything else recently], VISA shut down the card, and I was not out anything.
How had it happened? I'm sure it's reasonable to suppose transaction slips were thrown out, not shredded, by that firm back East. While I don't have incontrovertible proof, card activity and timing suggest a trash picker was at work.
Closer to home [where I won't be discarding VISA transaction slips curbside anytime soon], plenty of "information" in trash awaits identity thieves, who, courts have upheld, have the right to go through any trash once it's off your property.
The prime offender for junk mail is pre-approved credit card offers. I used to think it enough to tear up the application. No more. I cross-shred them and everything, including the envelope, with its USPS Intelligent Mail 65-bar barcode. IM barcodes, decoded, give your address [easily matched to your name] and the sender's ID. Good information for any identity thief.
What about all the other junk mail? The stuff without credit card offers. I shred that too. The IM barcodes alone give an identity thief material to work up a profile that eventually could be deployed against your best interests.
Of course, all this shredding generates its own mess, which is best dumped into a kraft paper bag in toto so that when the paper gets to the recycler the confetti doesn't fly all over the place.
Possibly my defensive posture is a bit paranoid, but I have assurance any 3 a.m. trash picker who opens my recycling cart and sees bags of shredded paper won't waste time pawing, and instead find another opportunity down the street.
Image credits: en.wikipedia.org
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection [and feel free to share with a friend] The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
.mobi (Kindle)
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.pdf (for PCs)
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