When we think about identity theft, most of us picture someone we don’t know stealing our information from our mailbox or an online source or a faceless person hacking an entire system and gaining access to personal information.
What if this faceless, unknown person was someone you knew or even someone who lives in your house?
“Familiar fraud" occurs when a friend, extended family member or even a spouse, child or parent uses a close relationship for his or her own financial gain.”
Check stubs, bank statements, account numbers, and actually any documents with personal information such as social security numbers or sensitive medical information on them.
What do these have in common? Every one of them could be used by identity thieves and should be disposed of by shredding.
Even years ago it was said that, “your mailbox is the riskiest non-technological point for identity theft.” With the incidences of theft out of people’s mailboxes considerably high,
To combat the rising incidences of mailbox theft, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has developed a service called “Informed Delivery” where a computer “scans the outside of your mail and shows you the images each morning before the mail is actually delivered.” You simply sign up for this service and the images are sent to you daily via email.
When we think about identity theft, most of us picture someone we don’t know stealing our information from our mailbox or an online source or a faceless person hacking an entire system and gaining access to personal information. 
