The few ones that actually come in the post these days. I remember that ‘identity thieves’ rummaging through your bins was once the scare-du-jour, and we were all supposed to shred anything ‘official’, in fact we even got a shredder.

However, for years now I’ve always taken that kind of stuff into work and dumped it in the confidential waste bins there. I don’t go into work anymore though, so should I start shredding again?

Wood burner / Fire pit / Chimenea / Pizza oven surely?

I shred the trails on my gnarpoon.

Not sure if that helps you at all

Still do ours – we still get some bills on old fashioned paper so we can prove our address/identity, and they get shredded

Mostly paperless but now have a ‘special’ (apparently) marker to blank out any details I might be concerned about. Mostly invoices for stuff I’ve ordered off the internet. Pointless really. Getting stuff like names, addresses, bank details and the like are pretty easy for anyone motivated enough without having to rummage through your bins. All these details are up for sale to the highest bidder and routinely exchanged between big business so scattered on thousands of databases and servers throughout the world.

I guess what can they do with the data? Without passwords and two factor identification and measures like that its pretty hard to gain access to your bank accounts. But still worth being prudent of course.

I still shred everything.

Our binmen don’t have a 100% record of getting the contents of the bin into the lorry. And I don’t fancy my neighbours having a read of my financial details as it blows down the street.

And whilst it’s not an issue where I am now when I lived in city centre flats it was common to get reports of people routing through the communal bins.

my wife.

thing is she doesnt get that the shredder needs emptied so she keeps going and going till it dies, after jamming EVERY **** TIME. then we ‘NEED’ another shredder. in an endless cycle of shredding and repalcemnt shredders.

sometimes i think it would be worth doing time. you might have hit a nerve.

We burn anything confidential.

Our binmen don’t have a 100% record of getting the contents of the bin into the lorry. And I don’t fancy my neighbours having a read of my financial details as it blows down the street.

Very valid point…..

sometimes i think it would be worth doing time

I feel your pain brother

Mostly paperless but now have a ‘special’ (apparently) marker to blank out any details I might be concerned about. Mostly invoices for stuff I’ve ordered off the internet.

My FIL religiously removes his address from everything (I mean even packaging/envelopes etc) that goes in his bin because “it sits outside the house so anyone could rummage through that and find my address”… …if they’ve got to your bin they know where you live.

I don’t fancy my neighbours having a read of my financial details as it blows down the street.

your financial details must be more exciting. I expect my neighbours wouldn’t have the slightest interst.

I had to do a couple of hours of E-Learning on ‘Physical Security’ as part of a wider cyber security accreditation. You’d never sleep at night if you took it all in.

TBH, if someone wants to gain your KYC details (as we’d call them in Banking) name, address, dob etc there are a lot of easier ways of doing it other than going through your bins in the dead of night hoping you’ll leave an old passport laying around.

However if you do need to destroy the most important and possibly incriminating of documents, best to get a cross cut shredder. If the Paparazzi / PIs / CIA are going through your bins, they can recreate straight shredded documents in minutes with a bit of software, in fact, I’m sure short of pulping it, they could recreate most things, or burn it.

If my neighbours saw my financial details they might take pity on me and give me free stuff. 😦

I burn them in the wood stove.

I still shred financial stuff, chances of anything bad happening if I didn’t are tiny but I have a shredder so may as well.

Capital One annoyed me, I switched to paperless but a year or so later started getting paper copies again – apparently they detected I’d not checked my online statement so switched back to paper ‘for my benefit’ (I don’t use the card, it’s just for emergencies hence never needing to check statements).

Without passwords and two factor identification and measures like that its pretty hard to gain access to your bank accounts.

I suspect it’s very easy if you know someones mother’s maiden name and DoB…

Banks still seem to be stuck in the 70s regarding security.

Used to shred but the stuff that comes through is so sporadic I just rip off any bits that have my identity in and soak them in water for a bit. Scrunch them up tight and lob in the bin.

I burn them in the wood stove.

Probably good for it too, they always send your bills on quality paper.

Paper bills, how quaint.

You folk need to check this thing called the internet 😉

If my neighbours saw my financial details they might take pity on me and give me free stuff. 😦

IANAScammer, but if I was, surely it would be better to target people like this.

The small-medium-sized business owner with six figures sloshing around in his account probably has accountants and bookkeepers casting an eye over them, checks their credit score, has a named point of contact at the bank etc.

The person living out of their overdraft on the other hand, no one at the bank would bat an eyelid when someone takes out a payday loan in their name, buys a load of sim cards, or gets a personal loan. And if they’re still getting paper copies at all it implies you don’t check your online account very often, so the scammer knows they have a month before they’re noticed.

Good kindling, two birds, one stone.

Some fascinating levels of paranoia on here (again).

Drugs are bad m’kay?

Drugs are bad m’kay?

That’s why I shred my drug invoices

Paper bills, how quaint.

You folk need to check this thing called the internet

But old people like physical doc’s. Got my mum paperless on gas electric etc. since found out when the email comes she prints off everything and files it away.

But old people like physical doc’s.

Ans all sorts of organisations like you to produce a physical document to prove identity and address.

Ans all sorts of organisations like you to produce a physical document to prove identity and address.

The last one I can remember was my gym membership 10+ years ago, they needed to see which council I paid tax to as it was subsidized for local residents. Even my mortgage was done via PDF’s and screenshots!

The small-medium-sized business owner with six figures sloshing around in his account probably has accountants and bookkeepers casting an eye over them, checks their credit score, has a named point of contact at the bank etc.

You say that…

Our ex-CFO wired $1.3m to fraudsters.

Standard model, they hack a suppliers email and monitor it for months. They then send a valid invoice for work we ordered but with new bank details. Finance clerk queries this, CFO over rules. Bank queries it, CFO over rules. This repeats three times!!!

Then supplier emails to ask where money is (real email this time).

Money has gone to fraudsters, transfered through dozens of accounts in various countries and withdrawn as cash in Hong Kong; never to be seen again.

But old people like physical doc’s. Got my mum paperless on gas electric etc. since found out when the email comes she prints off everything and files it away

Our secretary at work does this. Her desk is literally surrounded by filing cabinets, binders, piles of paper. She doesn’t wonder why she’s the only one with all that

That said my desk is covered in all kinds of 3D printed stuff, from useful stuff like a pen holder to the less useful, like a mini Garrett turbo that spins and whistles if you blow in the inlet

I did actually print a cock n balls as the first test print on a printer. I got back to find the print complete and no part on the print bed. The secretary had taken it and put it on her desk, where it still sits. She’s about 60 and very proper

Ans all sorts of organisations like you to produce a physical document to prove identity and address.

Surely on the rare occasion this happens you print the document? And in most cases nowadays you’ll be submitting pdfs digitally anyway

Interesting/apocryphal story was that Staples sponsored a couple of studies into identity theft and, unsurprisingly, the purchase of shredders for home use came out as one of the best things you can do to prevent it.

This Staples?

https://www.staples.co.uk/office-supplies/office-machines/shredders-and-shredding-accessories/

Surely on the rare occasion this happens you print the document? And in most cases nowadays you’ll be submitting pdfs digitally anyway

You can try but then it won’t be accepted. Its 5yrs ago but a Experian (could have been another) report for new employer wanted bills and only accepted proper paper bills. Refused council tax..for no reason and refused mobile bill because it was “self printed”.

Our old GP’s surgery (11 yrs ago – well OH and Jnr as I refused) demanded 6 mo of bank statements to register that they photocopied… they just have had fun come GDPR day

 Its 5yrs ago

11 yrs ago

Aye, nothing has moved on in all that time.

Interesting/apocryphal story was that Staples sponsored a couple of studies into identity theft and, unsurprisingly, the purchase of shredders for home use came out as one of the best things you can do to prevent it.

Probably true .. with emphasis on the YOU. You can’t really do much about your mobile company selling your personal data or some government minister leaving it on a train but you can at least prevent the odd person getting it from your bin.

Can anyone find one proven case of an identity being stolen by people going through bins?

Aye, nothing has moved on in all that time.

Yes we have moved backwards .. the more the government outsource our identity to make it a sellable product the further back we go.

Standard model, they hack a suppliers email and monitor it for months. They then send a valid invoice for work we ordered but with new bank details

That. We’ve had it but caught it in time. Two payments on same order, one genuine one fake.

To be fair if I was looking to steal an identity the Isle of Wight would be towards the bottom of the list, so I reckon I may be safe!

All paperless anyway. Interesting that stevextc, never had it myself but useful to know! If I printed it and folded it like it had been in an envelope how would they know though?

Can anyone find one proven case of an identity being stolen by people going through bins?

What exactly do you mean by that?
Do you mean someone has had their personal details (some of which could be from another source) being completed OR 100% from a bin?

we dc sometimes but the volume of shredded paper is huge and moves the waste from recyclable sheets to stuff that LA wont accept in recycle bin so goes to landfill bin? and as there is often spillage on normal recyc collection it would be like the aftermath of a 70’s wedding with shreddies all down the road.

All paperless anyway. Interesting that stevextc, never had it myself but useful to know! If I printed it and folded it like it had been in an envelope how would they know though?

What was more interesting is THEY wanted a digital copy of it… (not paper) but they refused to use it as it was self printed.