Privacy Means Profit: Prevent Identity Theft and Secure You and Your Bottom Line

Chapter 5. The Second Mind-Set: Destroy the Data

Sometimes the people picking up your garbage don't think of it as trash; they think of it as cash. And sometimes the trash man is really a "broker," selling bags of trash to the highest bidder. With such a high percentage of identity theft being committed using traditional methods (e.g., physical document theft), destroying paperwork you don't use or need is an essential step to take to prevent data breach.

Victim #2,010,336: The Cash Men

The Donaldsons had just purchased a new home. They closed on the house on Thursday, removed the "For Sale" sign on Friday, and moved in over the weekend. The following Wednesday was their trash pickup day, and by then, they had plenty of it.

The garbage was picked up while they were at work. They assumed it had all been taken by the waste and recycling company. They were wrong. Little did they know that by removing the "For Sale" sign, they had inadvertently sent a signal to a local identity theft crime ring (referred to as the Cash Men, a play on "trash men") to pay attention. The thieves had learned that the trash of new homeowners often is, for several weeks, a good source of copies of financial documents. These docs typically contain every piece of identity a thief wants and needs—Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, bank accounts—and all available for pickup from one convenient location.

To avoid looking suspicious, the Cash Men used a standard-looking trash truck to pick ...