Identity theft protection - Buy a shredder

The way to avoid becoming an an identity or credit theft victim is to safeguard your financial information cautiously, and to destroy that information that you no longer need. As technology becomes ever more a part of our day to day living, thieves are finding ever more smart ways to use the personal or financial information of others for their personal gain - and their victims' loss. Identity or credit theft is one of the most rapidly growing areas of financial crimes in the United States. The records vary, but various estimates say that nearly ten million people in this country are victimized by identity theft each and every year.

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One simple tool, available at any office supply store, can do a lot towards keeping you from becoming an identity theft victim. As identity theft becomes a growing problem, millions of Americans are at risk.

One of the best, and most affordable, ways to prevent theft of your information is to acquire a paper shredder. A shredder used to be an appliance that one only saw at large companies, such as credit unions. Document shredders can now be seen at most any office supply shop and you may also find them cheaply at your local Wal-Mart store. In recent years, more and more people have been purchasing paper shredders for home use.

The purpose of a document shredder is to hold off probable thieves from seeking and discovering your personal financial information on any personal documents that you might throw away. By purchasing a shredder, you can effectively render harmless any such documents before throwing them away, as documents that have been shredded can seldom be read. Searching through a stranger's garbage may seem to be a great deal of effort, but thieves do it frequently. Financial paperwork that should be shredded could include monthly bills, credit card bills, old income tax returns, receipts or almost anything else that you might discard that has information that is relevant only to you.

Cheap document shredder models are so-called "straight cut" shredders; it is possible that a thief with the pieces could put the strips of paper back together again. Shredders are not particularly pricey; you can purchase small models for as little as $30 or so. Inexpensive models will work just fine, but for a bit extra money you can buy a "confetti" style document shredder, which reduces the paperwork to much smaller strips.

You need to keep receipts, earnings statements, W-2 forms and any other similar documentation until you can be fairly sure that you won't need them anymore. You should only shred financial or personal documents when you are sure that you will no longer need them. You shouldn't discard all important documents. It is generally a good idea to keep a few financial or personal documents for up to 7 years for income tax purposes. You seldom know when the Internal Revenue Service may determine, out of the blue, to audit an income tax return you submitted three or four years ago.

Shredding papers is just one part of the prevention process for identity or credit theft. The dishonest people who would make off with your financial information are going to use a multifaceted attack, so you ought to use a multifaceted means of protecting yourself. You ought to guard your personal information when shopping on the Internet and look out for scams from telemarketers and spammers involved in phishing attacks.