3 Documents That You Should Be Shredding but Don’t

Did you know that in 2020 alone, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 4.8 million reports of identity theft and fraud? This was a 45% increase from the records collected in 2019. Between 2019 and 2020, there was a 113% increase in identity theft cases, and the states of Kansas, Rhode Island, and Illinois were most affected. In New Jersey, a total of 32,125 complaints of identity theft were filed.

One main reason for the increase in the cases of identity theft is our negligence to shred our documents. Most of our documents contain sensitive information, such as our personal details: name, address, contact information, date of birth, bank details, etc. When people with malicious intentions get hold of our personal documents, they use them to impersonate us and get access to our bank accounts and other assets. It is only after our bank accounts have been swept clean that we come to know of this tragedy, but by then, the imposters have already spent our money.

While quite a few people are mindful about shredding their tax returns, credit card statements and accounts sheets, there are some over-looked documents that even they don’t think are worth shredding. So, here are the 3 documents that you should be shredding but don’t.

1. Travel Itinerary

Whether you are going on vacation or a business trip, you must have made or been provided with some sort of travel itinerary to plan your stay. Airline tickets also contain a detailed itinerary as well as the airfare. The problem with travel itineraries is that it contains your personal details, your passport number, your credit card number which was used to make bookings and the exact dates and times of your arrivals and departures.

When in the hand of imposters, these documents can be used to rebook hotels or airlines and could be very dangerous for you because they will know exactly where you will be and on which date. Tourists are the easiest targets of robberies and mugging because they are unfamiliar with the rules, have limited resources, hardly know anyone around the town, and are not aware of the city’s dangerous spots. Therefore, your travel itineraries could put you in a lot of danger if they are not shredded on time.

2. Photographs and Old Identification Cards

Places of employment, schools, universities, and even public libraries issue their members or students identification cards for easy access to the premises. But once we resign, cancel our memberships, or graduate, those old identification cards become irrelevant, and we decide to dispose of them. The problem is that these identify cards can be recreated or replaced with an imposter’s picture and used to access the premises and cause harm to your former place of work or education. That’s why old identification cards should be an important part of document shredding.

Similarly, old photographs can be used to impersonate you. The imposters can use these photographs to verify your intimate details such as where did you grow up, who you were married to, what schools you attended, etc. and gain the trust of bank officers.

3. Old Receipts

We get receipts for every little purchase that we make, such as when you eat at a restaurant, buy your weekly grocery or have a water cooler repaired. These small slips of paper can pile up inside your wallets, handbags, or drawers and make it look cluttered. To get rid of the mess, we just crumple the paper and toss it in a bin. But identity thieves can use these receipts to benefit from the return policies and have items replaced in your name.

Moreover, the purchases that were made through credit cards have the last digits of your credit card number and your signature on the receipt. This information can be used for fraud because it can scan and forge your signatures on documents. Therefore, old receipts should be an important part of paper shredding.

New Jersey Shredding

Here, at New Jersey Shredding, we provide our customers safe, fast and environmentally-friendly document shredding service. For your peace of mind, we even offer an on-site paper shredding service. Our trained staff will come to your location and shred your private and confidential documents right in front of you so that you can rest assured that your documents are not falling into the wrong hands.

New Jersey Shredding service is a HIPPA compliant document shredding service, and we take our environmental responsibility very seriously. All the shredded paper waste is later sent to recycling plants to minimize solid waste on the planet.

For safe, speedy and environmentally-friendly document shredding, give us a call at (201) 371-590.

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