shredding

A reporter in Pennslyvania decided to try dumpster diving! Interesting idea...rifling through bags of garbage she found everything you'd expect, rotting food and its not so pleasant smell. But past the trash, she found papers and mail. After just 20 minutes of searching, she hit what an identity thief would call "the jackpot, by finding a document with a social security number. She then took that paper back to owner and asked him if he had forgotten that his social security number was on it?

For years, companies have been routinely shredding physical documents to ensure that confidential and sensitive information doesn't fall into the hands of competitors. This practice is partly due how easy dumpster diving can be.

Identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the USA, according to the National Crime Prevention Council. About 7 million people had their identities stolen in the year ended July 2003, according to two studies done by Gartner Research and Harris Interactive. Each will spend an average of $1,495 and 600 hours getting his or her finances straightened out, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. And that's not counting lawyers' fees.