Identity Theft Prevention Tips? 126
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?"
Easy solution... (Score:2, Informative)
Have you asked you bank? (Score:3, Informative)
You, a bucket, some water, the papers... (Score:3, Informative)
A good worm farm can take care of a NYT subscription pretty easily.
Re:Inconvenience is underrated (Score:3, Informative)
I'd watch out for those online fake email from ebay or your bank. I have citibank, but I've never given them my email address. So getting email from citibank telling me to change my password is a phisher. Watch out for an increase in offeres for credit cards as well.
DON'T carry your social security card with you in your wallet unless you are going somewhere that you need to show it. If your wallet gets stolen taht is one way they can get your bank account number. Find out the policy of banks about identity theft. Some banks will let people steal upto 5k before they call in the feds or police. I say this, because someone I know had their wallet stolen and the guy charged up $900 on a credit card before he called in the cards missing. Then the guy cashed checks from one bank at the guys bank each in the amount of 1-2k for a total of 3 checks. The grand total was just under 5k. My friend had to prove that it was not him cashing the checks and doing this and could not close his account. Also he had his ssn in his wallet when it was stolen so that is how the theif got his bank account number. He walked into the bank and said I forgot my account number, here's my ssn.
THE BANK DIDN'T ASK FOR AN ID EITHER!
Oh btw: the bank is Wells Fargo, and the other bank that the guy was getting the checks from was BoA.
DESTROY your old checks. If they end up in the trash someone could cash them even if you closed the account. Account numbers are recycled by banks.
Bottom line is that there is only so much you can do. The rest is up to these companies we pretend to trust with our personal information.
shred and mix (Score:3, Informative)
Many companies are now using secure disposal services that assure that the shredded documents are recycled into oblivion without any thief being able to get to them. If you talk it up right, your boss or your bank might think this is a great perk they could offer you (no cost to them but an obviously valuable service to you).
Don't worry about detection, just disable it (Score:3, Informative)
Don't worry about detecting the camera, just destroy its ability to work.
Start with newspapers (or better yet create some papers that look real, but really have fake data you WANT them to read) and a few logs.
Start your fire normally.
Once the logs are burning use a fan/bellows to crank up the heat.
Do this for some time, long enough to melt any cameras directly in the chimney.
Suddenly close the doors and damper. The heat of the former fire will keep smoke for a long time, this will build up soot in the chimney.
After some time re-build the fire, but just a small one.
Stir the shredded versions of your documents.
Slowly put the confetti in the fire.
Let the fire go out and everything cool. Keep watching.
Stir the ashes.
The small fire is important. A large fire will create enough of a draft to drive some of the paper up the chimney and out.
zerg (Score:3, Informative)