Identity Theft Prevention Tips?

metalhed77 asks: "I have a ton of bank statements I need to dispose of and am wondering what I should do with them. Googling for solutions I just find banks advising me to tear them up, which seems like more an inconvenience to a thief than a real preventative measure. What do Slashdot readers do with their sensitive documents? With so much data theft occurring in today's society, what else do you all do to protect your personal data?"

Comments

Re:Burn 'Em

[Seumas]

Not really. Bad credit is better than no credit. A history of debt is better than a history of no debt. Someone with an established history of being "in the hole" is socially and economically preferable to someone with a responsible history of not incurring debt in the first place.

Inconvenience is underrated

[fm6]

... I just find banks advising me to tear them up, which seems like more an inconvenience to a thief than a real preventative measure.

Don't underestimate inconvenience. An effective security measure is not one that absolutely guarantees security. (Unless you define "security" as "the illusion of perfect safety" -- which seems to be an all-too-common definition!) An effective security measure simply raises the cost of penetrating security until it's unacceptable to the potential thief, terrorist, or whatever.

Now, consider what's on your bank statement. Can the thief learn enough just by looking at your statements to pose at you? Obviously not. He can certainly use the statments to find out things you'd rather people not know. (Which is why it bothers some people that federal officials can browse online bank statements without a warrant.) And with a bit of work, he can use bank statements and other sources to assemble enough information about you to pose as you. Any inconvenience you add to the process, no matter how trivial, makes you slightly less vulnerable. The question is, how much effort should you expend to add inconvenience? To answer that, you have to consider just how much you have to protect.

I have to admit that I throw my bank statements in the trash without even tearing them up -- I have such a bad credit rating no sane person would want to steal my identity. If I were slightly better off, I would tear the statements up. If I were a lot better off, I'd buy a good shredder. And if I were really rolling in cash, I'd hire a document disposal service to convert my paper records to pulp before disposal.

But all of these measures can be circumvented. Shredded documents can be reassembled with enough patience and computer time. Sidney Bristow can use her feminine wiles to infiltrate your disposal service. You can't absolutely guarantee that nobody will steal your private records -- you can only make it not worth their while.

Re:You, a bucket, some water, the papers...

[woobieman29]

Sounds like a good idea, but please don't do this on your vegetable garden! The inks in some of the printed materials (especially colored inks) have a lot of ingredients you wouldn't really want to eat.