Preventing Identity Theft (or...How I need to take better care of my trash)

milehigh

So at my apartment complex it's fairly common in the winter months (freezing temperatures and such) to put one's trash out in the breezeway temporarily until you have a chance to run it out to a dumpster. Well, I did this late Friday night as it was cold, and I was not wearing adequate clothes to take the trash out.

Flash forward to yesterday morning, said trash is gone. Now I was pleasantly surprised thinking someone decided to be nice and take it out on their way out. Last night though, a friend of mine mentioned that they may be sifting through it as we speak looking for ways to steal my identities!

I don't even think there was any mail in there that would allow them to do this (possibly some offers for car insurance, but no credit card offers or anything, maybe this is irrelevant though since this stuff would've had some of my info on it).

So how can I go about getting some peace of mind on this? Is this just a matter of running a credit report in two weeks or a month and making sure everything looks good? Or do I need to start calling my banks/credit card companies telling them my info has been compromised? Thanks for any advice you guys can provide.

DragonPup

Shred everything, and check your credit score once a year. Assuming you are in America, you can get a check of the big three for free here once a year.

Aoi Tsuki

Yeah, make sure everything sensitive gets cross-shredded before you throw it out. OR, take it right to the dumpster.

MrOletta

I've taken neighbors trash out in similar situations, so I wouldn't necessarily be terribly paranoid. It is still a good idea to shred.

japan

Personally I do all my banking, credit card stuff, bills etc. online, I don't get paper statements or anything anymore. I've done this since my identity was stolen by someone stealing my post.

Anything I do get on paper (which isn't much) is shredded.

milehigh

Yeah, definitely going to be more careful and shred stuff from now on. I guess I'm wondering what I can do to make sure this specific instance didn't result in any life shattering consequences.

DragonPup

If you contact the Big Three(Equifax, TransUnion, Experian), they can put a 3 month block on opening new lines of credit as a precaution.

MichaelLC

DragonPup wrote: »

If you contact the Big Three(Equifax, TransUnion, Experian), they can put a 3 month block on opening new lines of credit as a precaution.

It's actually pretty easy, and you only need to do it thorugh one of them. Not a bad idea, and it really doesn't affect you, unless you were planning on buying a car/house/boat/RV in the next month or so.

In the future, get a shredder. I tear up any magazine promos and shred anything more serious (cc offers, etc).

Lail

Recycle! Don't throw paper in the trash!

BobCesca

Lail wrote: »

Recycle! Don't throw paper in the trash!

I don't know if this is true in the States, but over here a lot of recycle places say that they won't take shredded paper 'cos it gets stuck in the machine, or something.

This is why I have a load of stuff I can't recycle and has to be shredded.

japan

Lail wrote: »

Recycle! Don't throw paper in the trash!

Or, go paperless.

The only people from whom I get a bill that insist on sending it on paper are Birmingham city council. Everything else I get online.

gitsandshiggles

I've been in a similar situation, only I found out through filling out some forms via internet that someone had tried to use my information with their own personal information(idiot) to get money from the government. (Doubletime idiot.)

So... here are the precautions:
-Do not provide driver's license info before getting hired- only provide this upon official hiring or AFTER they agree to hire you.
-Social security #, same as the above. (I always explain- "I'm sort of a victim of identity theft"- employers usually understand and respect this)
-if you can't even risk those effers to piece together your shredded papers- you need to BURN them.
-that, or you better get a seriously good cross-cutting shredder.
-Do not hold your credit cards in a way that may allow any people near you to remember the numbers of your card.
-Be very discrete with the way you handle your cards and checks and stuff because people can do lots of messed up things with just the numbers. Some people have ridiculously good memory and can remember your numbers whether it seems silly or not- it happens.

I wouldn't have started walking on eggshells with this stuff until I filed a report on this with proof that my info was used, and the messed up part was.... the social security people and people of fraud protection told me there's nothing that could be done until there were more cases and more reports filed about my social security # and etc... being used. I was like "I went through this once, why do I have to go through it again for you to give me a new SS#????" And all they could say was.. " Because issuing you a new SS# is very complicated, and your problem would no longer be a problem if the person stopped using your SS#"

I was like... W T F. Soo furious. All they offered was a pamphlet to be snail-mailed to me, with pretty much what I shared with you above.