To shred or to tear: that is the question. Robert Cockerham of cockeyed.com decided to put the matter to a test. His test subject? A newly received Chase Mastercard pre-approved application.
Step 1: Robert tears the application into small pieces.
Step: 2: Robert meticulously lines the torn pieces up and tapes them together, like so.
Step 3: Robert fills out the application, replacing the current billing address with a new one (his parent’s house) and using his cell phone as the phone number on the new account.
With that, he mails it in.
Step 4: Robert excitedly receives his new credit card at his parent’s house and activates it using his cell phone.
Analysis:
- Tearing up your sensitive documents is not sufficient.
- Some creditors will process applications, even if they’ve been torn up, taped together and have a new address.
- A criminal could easily apply for credit in your name, change the address, and activate the account via a pre-paid cell phone. You wouldn’t even know what happened until creditors started calling you about your unpaid bills.
- You must destroy all sensitive documents using a cross-cut shredder
before placing them in the trash.
- Better yet, opt-out of pre-approved offers and give your shredder and the recyclers a rest.
Read the whole story on Cockeyed.com.
(34 votes, average: 4.47 out of 5)
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shannon
April 11, 2006 @ 2:23 pm
I am not surprised by this story. As a student at the University of Minnesota, I have been investigating mail and identity theft for a school project. Recently I put together a website http://www.mypostalprotection.com. This site will hopefully help alert people to the risks they are taking by leaving their mail unprotected and not disposing of it properly.
Bryan Hesterman
May 8, 2006 @ 5:16 pm
Dumpster diving has been used sucessfully for decades and is one of the easiest ways to collect information for identity theft. But, shredding your sensitive trash is only half the battle. What happens when a postal worker delivers mail to your house in an unlocked mailbox and you are not home? This is a frequently used technique to collect info such as credit card bills, utility bills, dmv records, bank statements, personal letters etc. A huge boon for identity theives! For more useful tips and good information on current legislation, please visit http://www.crosscutshredding.com.
Thanks!
Krap Nep
May 10, 2006 @ 9:35 pm
people will make keys for a mail boxes. this is doen by stealing that little box off the front gate of any gated community at any appartments that little box that the mail person puts his key in to unlock the gate. from that little box is how you make that key. With that key is how a crook will unlock any and all mail boxes to steal your mail. How to combat that is to get a postal PO BOX. Another way that ID theft is happeniung is from Phishing fake emails are sent out by these types of crooks by the millions every day you mite see alot of PayPal emails saying “dear valued PalPal member” REMEMBER PAYPAL WILL ONLY ADDRESS YOU BY YOUR REALY NAME.
crooks also phish using other bank headers like from all the majore banks telling you that they are updating there database and will you please take the time out to give all your info again. DONT EVER DO THAT!!!!! EVER You will be amazed how many thousands of people fill those out. stealing peoples mail is a very old and out dated method of getting your info. Hackers hack into large data centers THEY WILL NOT HACK INTO YOUR PC THEY DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR PC THEY WANT THE BIG FISH. im not saying it will never happen but its very unlikely it will so dont waist your monmey on firewalls and expensive virus protection. sure get your little virus protection going but a true hacker will go through that like butter.
Concerned Consumer
July 13, 2006 @ 11:03 am
Businesses and Consumers should at least shred any unneeded document. And even then this trash should not be left in an open garbage container for longer then a few hours. The best idea is to take out the trash right before it will be picked up, eliminating the possibility of dumpster diving. Physical mail fraud is one of the lowest sources of identity theft, but it does occur. Email scams, however, are very common. Users should take care in noticing the url of the links in your email, for example a link could look like this:Click here for the Identity Theft Protection - Information and Resource Center - www-identitytheft.com but actually link to something else like http://www.otherwebsite.net/34872432/?identitytheft
The real Danny Lents - IdTheftAwareness.com
July 26, 2006 @ 11:22 am
I’m not surprised the credit card was still issued. Credit card companies make enough money to compensate for the fraud cases. The burden truly lies on the consumer.
I hope that all the recent data compromises in the news will motivate consumers to demand better data protection policies by the credit bureaus and businesses. Laws like California’s SB 1386 and Texas’ SB122 are a step in the right direction.
Here is an extract from SB 122 that all business should follow with or without laws making it a requirement. It’s just common sense and an ethical business responsibility.
=== From Tx SB 122 ====
(b) A business shall destroy or arrange for the destruction
of customer records containing sensitive personal information
within the business’s custody or control that are not to be retained
by the business by:
(1) shredding;
(2) erasing; or
(3) otherwise modifying the sensitive personal
information in the records to make the information unreadable or
undecipherable through any means.
Sean Matteson
July 28, 2006 @ 12:58 pm
Unfortunately way too many people think that just shredding your documents and not buying things on the internet will protect you from ID Theft. Your information is already out there and if they want it they can get it. Hopefully this story will wake people up a bit.
Sean Matteson
Mike McDonough
September 9, 2006 @ 7:39 pm
This type of ID theft is the simplest to resulve. Even though if you don’t notifie the creditor that you didn’t open the account winthin 60 days you owe the debt. I’m more concerned about the other 4 areas of ID theft. Check them out at mikemcdonough.org
Pet Johnson
September 15, 2006 @ 8:40 pm
These kinds of stories freak me out. I can’t afford to risk losing my identity and putting my whole financial future at risk. I am a big fan of locking your credit with the credit bureaus, so no one can destroy your credit by taking your social security number. I recently signed up for a great identity theft protection product at TrustedID (http://www.trustedid.com), who make it easy to lock your credit with the credit bureaus.
Christi
March 5, 2007 @ 1:32 pm
Out here in rural Oregon, there are people who post ads that they will come remove your garbage, and take it to the dump for a small fee. (There is no trash service in areas with less than 25,000 people.) The problem is, many people pocket the dump fees, and leave the garbage out in the forest or in fields, and then make off with personal information from your trash. Worse yet, the remainder of the garbage is left for authorities to find, and not only has your identity been stolen, but you are facing criminal dumping charges and fines!! It’s best to dispose of your own garbage, burn it, shred it, whatever you have to do, but don’t let it get into the hands of strangers. Yet I remember a day when I was in elementary school and the teacher wrote her social security number on the chalk-board to teach us about our identities. Nowdays, kids would write it down until they figured out how they could use it for something!!
Rebecca
April 17, 2007 @ 10:19 am
I just read Here She Lies by Kate Pepper which is a thriller about identity theft. The story shows what happens when identical twin sisters can no longer trust each other. One, Annie, ends up in prison for crimes she claims she didn’t commit. The other, Julie, disappears with Annie’s baby. Even so, because of a bogus paper trail created by an identity thief, not even the police know who to trust. I borrowed this book from a friend who won it in a contest and I saw why she loved it. I got right into Annie’s head and her life. I couldn’t put it down. Partly what scared me was the idea of what can happen to a person when their identity is stolen–and that happens so much these days it seems that anyone can become a victim. The novel went into how this can happen and the trouble it can bring on a person. After I read it I went out and bought a paper shredder! And I also signed up with a credit monitoring service. Can anyone out there recommend other ways to be safe in this age of identity theft?
Living the Good Life » Blog Archive » Protect yourself (9/16)
September 16, 2007 @ 6:17 am
[...] non-paper inserts). If you think that just tearing things up is good enough then you might want to read this. Now the likelihood of someone being able to steal your identity and sign up for something in your [...]
marie a, luton
March 30, 2008 @ 11:14 am
I recently obtained my three in one credit report from Experian. To my surprise were several accounts which I know nothing about. Some were deleted. There are three that weren’t. In October of 2002 someone used my name, social security number and address to open a preapproved credit card with Washington Mutual/Providian. They used a cell phone to activate the credit card, At that time I did have a cell phone. Don’t know if they used my telephone number. In January of 2003 I moved from that mailing address. I should have gotten my first bill before January 2003. I still don’t understand, if my former address was used why I did not get the credit card. I was unemployed in October 2002. They used a former employer as if I still worked there. Do you need a social security number to fill out a preapproved application? These crooks seemed to have alot of information on me. I know that it is easy for some people to obtain your records. I wonder whether this was an inside job? Searching the internet to see what I can find out about Providian.
Linda (Canadian Concerned Consumer)
May 4, 2008 @ 7:43 am
i keep getting pay pal emails saying i owe money ? I have never used pay pal …What do i do? I have not replied … never used it. How do i stop it or report it?
Canadian consumer concerned??
jim
May 21, 2008 @ 11:49 pm
A necessary line of defense in preventing identity theft is the simple purchase of a high quality locking mailbox. While even the best quality locking mailbox will not deter the determined thief, it will certainly reduce the likelyhood that your mail and consequently, your identity may be stolen.
Office Shredders
July 6, 2008 @ 10:58 pm
I think personal shredding doesn’t work. That’s why I’ve taken all my stuff to this company called Stordok. They seem to do a really good job with shredding my documents
sami
July 24, 2008 @ 5:09 am
I review this site and getting good idea and view that written here, life lock is good industry taking good steps keep monitoring identity thieves and it always protect from wrong hands’ and taken full service . No one stop identity theft, but we almost completely cover it and its life lock guarantee. So we suggest visit this site hope you getting more knowledge.
Steve
September 5, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
What you need to do is stop the credit card offers from getting into your mail box. I use http://www.MyJunkTree.com to stop all those credit card offers from getting into my mail box and they also stop about 90 percent of the junk mail and plant 5 trees with each new membership. All this for $20.00 for a 3 yera membership. A great deal!