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.

Is Shredding My Documents Really Necessary?

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.

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.

What Type of Paper Shredder is the Best?

Although shredding or destroying sensitive documents has been around for decades, the necessity of shredding or having a professional document destruction service has gained popularity in the past few decades.

“As well as size and capacity, shredders are classified according to the method they use and the size and shape of the shreds they produce. 

What Time Will My Shredding Service Be Here?

Service providers generally work between the respectable hours of 8:00am to 5:00pm to give those receiving service some semblance of a normal workday.

Any cable, telephone, pool, or most any other service provider accommodate schedules by not only being there to service you between respectable hours, but possibly even giving you a smaller window of time during the day that they will be to your home to provide service.

If I Take My Documents to be Shredded, How Do I Know They Are Actually Destroyed?

Certified document destruction companies have standards and procedures in place that must be followed in order to be certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID).

One of those policies is to provide each customer with a certificate of destruction to all customers who have sensitive information destroyed. 

Can I Put Plastic Binders In With My Shredding?

Plastic spiral binding, also called comb binding, “is one of many ways to bind pages together into a book. This method uses round plastic spines with 19 rings (for US Letter size) or 21 rings (for A4 size) and a hole puncher that makes rectangular holes. Comb binding is sometimes referred to as plastic comb binding or spiral comb binding.”

Since these binders are made of plastic, some recycling centers will accept them in their recycling bins. Shredding them may be a bit of a different story.

Should I Remove Rubber Bands Before I Put Paper Into the Document Destruction Bin?

Rubber Bands are short lengths of rubber and latex which are elastic in nature and formed in the shape of a circle. They are commonly used to hold multiple objects together. Objects like piles of paper that you ultimately place into the shred pile. 

Should you remove those rubber bands before shredding your documents? 

Myths About Professional Shredding Services Revealed

Since the introduction of professional shredding of sensitive documents within the past decade or so, many myths and misconceptions have arisen. The most common ones have been listed below, along with the facts surrounding them.

1.  Only large companies have confidential documents to shred - Any sized company risks identity theft and should, therefore, shred sensitive documents. Many more documents than we realize contains sensitive information and can be used in a malicious way.