Most personal information that are used in identity theft crimes were either taken from the garbage or snatched at mailboxes.
Why, in these two locations, you ask? For the very simple reason that these locations are gold mines for identity thieves because both the garbage bins and mailboxes contain valuable correspondence and documents that contain very sensitive personal information.
Following this line of thought, it is therefore important that we are vigilant with the trash that we throw away and mails that we allow to sit in our mailbox for hours.
These can be easily picked up by identity thieves and use it against you.
And for this, the next step that anyone should make to protect themselves from identity theft is: Secure your mailbox and garbage bins.
Your mail comes in your mailbox, maybe in the morning, or in any other part of the day.
As soon as it is in, you should immediately empty your mailbox and sort them inside the house.
Allowing your mails to linger in the box can make it potentially attractive to identity thieves.
All they have to do is sift through your mail and look for pertinent documentations like pre-approved credit card offers, bank statements, credit card bills, other utility bills and a rather innocent birthday note from Uncle Mary.
All these things provide a clue on your personal data and should thus, never fall on the hands of criminals.
If you will be out of the house for a week or for days, you can ask your neighbor to do it for you.
If you can afford it, get a PO Box.
This can enormously help you secure your mails as no one, except the owner, can access a PO box thus, your mails can only be accessed by you.
The only downside about it is that when you need your mail, then you need to take a hike or drive down the nearest post office to get it.
These correspondence and mails, after they are sifted through and the pertinent ones are kept and the other is thrown out of the trash, then identity thieves are still on "fiesta.
" If you do not properly dispose your documents, then you might have evaded identity thieves in your mailbox but they can still access your personal information through your trash.
Dumpster diving is one of the most basic strategies employed by identity thieves in pursuit of their crime.
In this particular method, they rummage through garbage bins for any pieces of information that they can get from their potential victims.
Most Americans are known for rejecting a lot of pre-approved credit cards offers, and throwing them simply out of the trash.
This type of mail can play a significant role in inviting identity thieves to come and scour your garbage.
Again, if you can afford it, invest in a portable paper shredder so that you will be assured that any paper that goes out of your household are seriously in no condition to provide further information as they are already destroyed before they are even disposed.