Identity Theft in the Age of Social Media

We’ve increasingly heard the term “identity theft” and heard about how to protect ourselves from being a victim. Things like shredding junk mail and documents containing sensitive information, not giving out credit card information or social security numbers and securing your mail in a post office box. But social media is safe, right? Think again.

“Social media, in its present form, has been around a relatively short term and even though you probably can’t imagine living without it now, except for the last few decades, everyone did.”

What's the Cost of Identity Theft?

Identity thieves stole almost $17 billion in 2017. Although this figure is an unfathomable amount for most of us, it is merely the amount of actual money stolen and doesn’t take into consideration things like “time spent resolving identity theft issues and the emotional and psychological stresses caused by identity theft.”

“Since 2003, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has been surveying victims of identity theft to understand things like how long it takes them to find out they're a victim, what they experience, how long it takes them to fix the issues caused by identity theft and how much money it costs them to recover.

Facts About Identity Theft

“Nearly 60 million Americans have been affected by identity theft, according to a 2018 online survey by The Harris Poll. That same survey indicates nearly 15 million consumers experienced identity theft in 2017.”

Other staggering statistics about the growing problem of identity theft are below.

Preparing Your Documents for Shredding

Most people realize that such things as binders or even binder clips can’t be left on sensitive material to be shredded. 

This holds true for personal shredders, of course, but professional shredding services as well. But are we doing too much to prepare documents for shredding with a professional shredding service.

Can I Put My Documents to be Shredded in Plastic Bags?

The need for document destruction services has become evident and risen to staggering levels in the past couple decades.  This is, in large part, due to the hundreds of thousands of people falling victim to identity theft and fraud each year.

Document destruction companies make this service very easy for customers by offering on-site shredding, off-site shredding, and public shred events.  One of the things we can do to make these services go more smoothly is to put documents to be shredded in boxes rather than plastic bags.