I was just wondering what others feel about this. I was just talking to my neighbor about the idea of shredding important documents that are no longer needed. Up until now, I have been burning any mail or written correspondance that I felt could be used by someone of a dubious nature, he does the same. I just got a couple of shredders from work and it makes confetti out of paper, nothing left at all. What made me really interested in this was that I on the news that it costs an average of about $10K to straighten out the mess someone can make by "stealing your identity".

How about you guys? Am I paranoid, or just the norm?

JET

As I understand it, 99% of identitiy thefts come from the thief getting info off of thrown away items or discarded at a gas staion garbage can, etc. I would imagine there's also the problems with known associates stealing as well. My Dad also shreds his "you have been pre-approved" junk mail. Probably not a bad idea.

I do everything I can via a PO box.

I shred into confetti everything that is trash and has any name, address and/or any other unique information on it.

I'm sure there are other things I do out of habit that I can't recall right now, just be carefull with anything that has your name, address, signature..etc...

I have been close to having somebody trying to scam me. I got a charge from a gas station about 20 miles from my house with a receipt that had my last name and address on it. The charges were for about $20 of gas. The woman that signed it was nobody that I had heard of but she used my last name. I refused to pay it and told them to take it and .... it. Needless to say I don't buy gas from them anymore, not that I did in the first place.

But since then, every receipt I get goes in the fire, or the shredder now. I'm not taking any chances.

JET

Every since I got into computers, some 15 years ago, I have been very careful with EVERYTHING with my name, account numbers, etc, on it.

Yea, I was a junior cracker a long time ago. I was facinated with how easy it was to gather information about a person. That was when I realized that I need to do something to protect myself.

Mainly at the beginning I would have to worry about other crackers. It was game of one-up-manship. First was trying to find their real name, then you would go on and find their address, phone number, accounts, etc, while they were doing the same to you.

When it dawned on me that I wasn't as good as the other guys, in getting their info. I decided it was best to drop out of that life and make sure to cover my info.

Since then it has just become habit to shred EVERY piece of mail with my name on it. Even if it just has my name and address on it, in the shredder it goes. NEVER leave any reciept behind, take it home and keep it for cross referencing statements, then shred them.

Every now and then, when at the ATM I look at the left over reciepts. It is interesting to see balances, partial account info, etc.

I still have a hard time buying things online. I usually have two credit cards. One for in person purchases, the other for when I have to use online purchases. I keep them seperate at all times. I make sure the "online" card has the best protection policy. I don't care about the interest rate on that one, it gets paid off every month, no mater what.

I know that I am paranoid. But so far, so good.