Letter from police received

[honeybee13]

A friend of ours had his ID hijacked because he'd left a mailshotted application form for a credit card in the bin, it had his details already printed on it. Someone took the form and applied for the card and it took him a year or two to sort out the mess.

[Manxman in exile]

We shred the names, house number, road name, city name and even county name (if there is one) on all correspondence that we don't keep.

 

I find it a bit difficult to believe that identity thieves would need to go to the trouble and inconvenience of going through bins to gather personal details, and then perhaps need to put shredded details back together*.  Are the police seriously suggesting they be burnt?**

 

In the first place, I could walk down our road or neighbouring roads right now and collect those personal details without going through bins.  I'm always amazed at the number of people who put delivery packaging out for recycling without removing their names and addresses.  The information is left out there for any passerby to see.

 

Second, if you wanted to collect names and addresses, wouldn't it just be more efficient all round to have a look at a copy of the local current electoral register?  You can usually find it in a local library.  You could collect 100s of names and addresses at one go without the uncertainty of not knowing what is or isn't in a bin - and without getting your hands dirty...  The electoral register and the 'open register': View the electoral register - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 

 

*Didn't it take the Ayatollahs years and years to do that with American embassy documents?  I doubt identity thieves have - or even need - their level of patience.

 

**Probably easier to turn it into papier mache rather than burn it.  I've done that when our shredder broke.  (The police do talk utter rubbish sometimes)

Edited October 7, 2022 by Manxman in exile

[Ethel Street]

11 hours ago, The GodMother said:

If someone is desperate enough they will put it back together.

 

Alarmist.

 

Only the most basic hand cranked shredder still shreds into long strips that you might be able to piece together. Pretty much every other shredder you can buy is cross-cut and there is no way that anyone could ever piece it together again, unless perhaps they can call on the resources of the Chinese Peoples Army to help them.

 

tbh this is bit of a red herring though. People wanting to steal information aren't that interested in stuff that only tells them your name and address because as others have said there are much easier ways of finding out who lives there.

 

On its own just the name and address is not that useful to fraudsters. They need to link it with other information, even something as simple as knowing your mobile number and email helps them a lot. It's personal financial information they are really hoping for - people who put stuff with their bank details in the bin etc 

 

[The GodMother]

Yes the police said burn it. Sounds mad l know but hey they know best. I just take the labels off and store them at home shredded until we have the next burning session. 

[Ethel Street]

56 minutes ago, The GodMother said:

Yes the police said burn it. Sounds mad l know but hey they know best.

 

Not "the police", just what one police employee said. The police forces themselves do not issue any guidance that says burn don't shred.

 

Anway, I'm not going to digress from the thread topic any further.