Items You Should Be Shredding
With the continuing rise in identity theft and corporate espionage businesses and individuals need to be aware of ways to keep themselves protected. There are many documents that are often forgotten about that can leave your business open to security breaches and individuals exposed to identity theft. Here are some documents you should be shredding, but probably aren’t:
Magazine Cover With A Labels
Those magazine labels have your name address and a barcode that can be read and may contain much more of your personal information than you realize. Shred them all to play it safe.
Old Luggage Tags
How many time do you get ready for a trip and the old label is still on the luggage and you rip it off and just toss it in the trash. Those tags have your name and a barcode that has all of your travel information on them that thieves can use.
Used Airline Tickets & Boarding Passes
Your boarding pass or airline ticket has your name, your travel plans, and a barcode that can reveal your frequent-flier number, that can be used to log in to airline accounts to view upcoming travel plans, check in to flights, and even cancel trips.
Junk Mail
Junk mail is not junk to identity thieves. Most people junk mail is just trash, but junk mail may have barcode on them that may contain your personally information. This includes pre-qualified credit card offers, insurance company offers and lending institutions. Offers from organizations like AAA, AARP or other membership organizations that may have your personal information on the mailer. You should shred all of your junk mail, including the return envelopes provided with it.
Child- and School-Related Mail
Identity thieves don’t discriminate and they aren’t known for their conscience, so they won’t care if they steal a Social Security Number belonging to a child. So any mail you receive concerning your children, their medical records, and school information should be shredded. Don’t forget about any mail containing your authorization for school field trips, school applications, and report cards also need to be shredded.
Prescription Receipts
It’s not just the label on the pill bottle but the receipt stapled to the Rx bag you need to shred. These labels may list your name, the date of dispensing, the name and strength of the drug, and the pharmacist’s name address and phone number. Thieves may use this info to refill prescriptions or steal your identity.
Photos
Photos of yourself, family member, employees, customers, and suppliers may seem harmless, but thieves can use these photos to make up an identity. Combine this with any other personal information they may have collected and you could be in trouble. Keep your personal, employees and customers safe by shredding these photos instead of tossing them into the trash.
Resumes & Employment Applications
When people apply looking for jobs a hard copy of their resume and other documents containing personal information is often left behind. This information would be all too easy for identity thieves to take advantage of. Keep these applications in a locked location and shred when no longer needed.
Shipping Labels
Shipping labels include confidential information such as your business’s address and account numbers. Mail room employees should always remove and shred these labels before boxes or packages are broken down and recycled.
Scratch Pad Notes
Hand written notes created everyday. These convenient pieces of paper that are easy to grab and write down information when on a call or making notes in a meeting. What is written on these notes are confidential information like account numbers, passwords, pricing and many other private information. But unfortunately these notes are no longer needed they are often just thrown into the trash. Keep yourself protected by always shredding these notes.
Add these items to all the other documents you want shredded and give FileShred a call to shred them.
