Business/Commercial Identity Theft - in this case, criminals will use another’s business name and details to obtain credit. It is important to destroy all forms of corporate and personal confidential data safely and securely to avoid this occurence. 

Criminal Identity Theft - an individual’s identity may be stolen in order to pose as another when commiting a or being apprehended for a crime. The ramifications of this crime can be large, and we encourage you to ensure your documents are destroyed appropriately.

Financial Identity Theft - financial identity theft occurs when an individual wishes to use another’s identity to gain goods and services. This form of identity theft can be stopped by sorting and destroying all personal and business based documents.

Identity Cloning - in this case, an individual will steal the identity of another in order to use their personal information and assume his or her identity in every day life. Not only is it important to destroy confidential documents where necessary, it is also important to take good care of current items such as drivers licenses and credit cards.

Medical Identity Theft - individuals can steal another’s identity in order to aquire medical care or pharmaceutical medications. Unused and unnecessary scripts and medical information must be properly and safely disposed of as soon as possible to avoid this case happening.

Get in touch with Ezy-Way Security Shredding today, and we will help you keep your identity safe and destroy your unwanted documents safely and at an affordable price.

• ATM receipts
• Birth certificate copies
• Medical and dental records
• Credit card bills - carbon copies, summaries and receipts
• Documents relating to investments
• Documents containing maiden name
• Cancelled and/or voided checks
• Documents containing names, addresses, phone numbers or e-mail addresses
• Documents containing passwords or PIN numbers
• Bank statements
• Driver’s licenses or items with a driver’s license number
• Travel itineraries
• Employee pay slips
• Employment records
• Unlaminated identification cards
• Legal documents
• Investment, stock and property transactions
• Credit reports and histories
• Luggage tags
• Papers with a Social Security number
• Pre-approved credit card applications
• Report cards
• Resumés
• Expired passports
• Tax forms
• Used airline tickets
• Utility bills

• 75% of Australians throw out enough personal information, such as credit card statements, in their rubbish and recycling to put them at risk of identity fraud.
• 87% of Australians are concerned about identity theft.
• When it comes to concerns about identity fraud, women fear financial loss, poor credit rating, feeling personally violated and embarrassed far more than men.
• Personal information such as your date of birth, address, mother’s maiden name and passwords are now as valuable as money. This is enough information for a fraudster to open bank accounts, apply for credit cards, loans and much more.
• According to The Australian Federal Police (AFP), identity fraud costs the nation up to $4 billion every year.
• 81% of middle Australian households (with an income of $40k - $69k) are most likely to put themselves at risk of identity theft by throwing out personal information such as utility bills and credit card statements.

We encourage you to be smart about every item you plan to throw away into the rubbish - read over the item, take note of important data and have this securely destroyed by a professional. Give Ezy-Way Security Shredding a call today.

Skilled identity thieves use a variety of ways to gain access to your personal information. It is common that they may obtain information from businesses or institutions whilst working - bribing an employee who has access to these records, hacking these records and conning information out of employees. This is the most common, and often can be worsened by a lack of proper security shredding services. Other ways include:

- Stealing of your wallet or purse.
- Stealing of your personal information through email or the phone, stating that they are from a legitimate company and claiming that you have a problem with your account. This practice is known as ‘phishing’ online or ‘pretexting’ by phone.
- Stealing your credit or debit card numbers, by capturing the information in a data storage device. This practice is known as ’skimming’.
- Obtaining your credit reports, by abusing the authorized access that was granted to their employer, or by posing as a landlord, employer or someone else who may have a legal right to your report.
- Rummaging through your trash, the trash of businesses or public trash dumps in a practice known as ‘dumpster diving’.
- Stealing of your personal information that they find in your home, in the instance of a break-in.
- Stealing of your mail, including bank and credit card statements, credit card offers, new checks and tax information.
- Completing a ‘change of address’ form to divert your mail to another location, such as their own, in order to gain access to all of your personal mail.

It is vital that you are constantly aware of any unusual occurances, and report them immediately. Be smart and be safe, as your identity is highly important and must be regarded in the same fashion. Get in contact with Ezy-Way Security Shredding today, to have one of our professional carefully dispose and destroy your confidential documents.

Did you know that:

• 1 recycled tin can save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours
• 1 recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes
• 1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours
• Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the rubbish could be recycled
• The unreleased energy contained in the average rubbish each year could power a television for 5,000 hours
• On average, 16% of the money you spend on a product pays for the packaging, which ultimately ends up as rubbish
• As much as 50% of waste in the average garbage could be composted
• Up to 80% of a vehicle can be recycled
• Glass is 100% recyclable and can be used again and again.
• Glass that is thrown away and ends up in landfills will never decompose
• Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials 
• Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled 
• Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose

So, give Ezy-Wy a call today, and we will securely look after and destroy your confidential documents, whilst saving and helping the environment!

An ID check simply runs on a 100 point system, in which you require items such as drivers license, Medicare and Centrelink cards and bills of many kinds. Imagine how easy it could be for an individual to steal these items from you, and then steal your identity away?

Researchers were given specific permission to rummage through our rubbish bins in order to identify what sort of items we are throwing away. The results say that far too many individuals are throwing away sensitive documents without shredding them first. More than half of this material that is in our bins can be used for the 100 point ID check - with no problems at all.

There were even cases of confidential documents containing images, signatures and PIN details for credit cards and debit cards. It is extremely important that you value your identity, and ensure that this sort of information is kept completely clear of your trash.

Give Ezy-Way Security Shredding a call today, and we will arrange for your confidential and sensitive documents to be shredded in a safe environment today.

Here are some interesting recycling facts, to get you and your business inspired to help save our environment:

• Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy that would have been used to make new aluminum from virgin material.
• Recycling steel cans saves 74% of the energy that would have been used to make a new can from virgin material.
• Recycling a glass bottle can save enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours.
• The United States makes enough shrink wrap each year to shrink wrap the state of Texas.
• Each ton of paper that gets recycled saves about 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
• Recycling is saving enough energy to provide electricity for 9 million homes per year.
• By 2005, recycling will reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that emitted by 36 million cars.
• 95% of our nation’s virgin forests have been logged.
• Recycling saves 3.6 times the amount of energy generated by incineration and 11 times the amount generated by methane recovery at landfills.
• Most states have less than 20 years of landfill space left.
• The national recycling rate is 28%. The EPA set a goal of 35%.
• Plastic is virtually indestructible. If the pilgrims had had plastic bottles, those bottles would still be around today.

Help us save our planet, and become environmentally friendly today!

These are typical examples of identity fraud, where criminals use the identities of others in order to take over their credit accounts or to open new accounts in their names.

Most of us have never experienced identity fraud and many of us may be unconcerned and believe we’re not affected by it. But we are.

Identity fraud is the UK’s fastest growing crime. According to the Cabinet Office, identity fraud costs the UK at least £1.3 billion every year and is one of the more difficult frauds to combat. Although lenders are employing more sophisticated methods to spot fraudsters, people who are targeted often take up to 14 months to realise they are victims of identity fraud.

When criminals buy goods and services on credit using false information, we all pay through higher prices and more expensive credit terms, even if our own accounts are untouched. And when someone is victimised by a particularly successful scam, criminals are more likely to continue cheating others using similar fraudulent operations.

Make sure you look for the signs, and know who to turn to. Ensure that when you are disposing of your unwanted and confidential documents it is done in a safe, secure manner and environment. Speak to one of the professionals at Ezy-Way Security Shredding for more information on how to keep your identity safe.

Source: Times Online.co.uk

How do we discard documents that are safeguarded?

Where is our printer located? Is it a network printer? Does it sit next to the copier and/or fax machine?

How many employees have access to the freshly printed documents before you retrieve them?

What is in our garbage dumpster outside? Is it locked?

Is there paper blowing around outside our building? If so, what is on it?

What do we do with the working draft of a report or proposal once we are done with it?

How many people have access to our recycling and waste containers in our office? Could they benefit from the information they have access to?

What happens to our magnetic or digitally stored information?

How do we dispose of old computers?

What do we do with disks, CD’s, tape backups, microfiche and film?

How can I make these elements safer and more confidential?

If you cannot answer some of these questions confidently, it is best that you review your system, and come up with a plan that is safe and secure for your business. Give Ezy-Way Security Shredding a call today, and we can assist you in safely removing and destroying your confidential documents in a safe environment and manner.

With the flip of a switch, Scott Linzy tilted a bushel of white paper files into the steel jaws inside his mobile shredding truck.

Instantly, the pile of paper was reduced to a mound of confetti-like fluff. A security camera on the side of the Absolute Secured Shredding Inc.’s truck recorded the quick-moving process.

Checking his clipboard, Linzy said the parking lot stop — outside a Rancho Cordova, Calif., medical records company last month — is the first of 20 to 30 on his daily route.

“Most take only five to 10 minutes,’’ said Linzy, president of the family-owned, Fair Oaks, Calif.-based business.

In an era of heightened concerns about identity theft and government mandates on confidentiality, the business of mobile document disposal — shredders on wheels, if you will — is thriving.

Many companies are privately held and don’t disclose revenue. But the National Association of Information Destruction Inc., a trade group for the industry, says its membership has soared in the last five years, from 150 to more than 1,000 today.

Much of that growth has been fueled by fears of identity theft, which hit 8.4 million adult Americans in 2007, costing an average of $5,720 per victim, according to a recent Javelin Strategy & Research study.

“(Shredding) is one of the top five things people can do to protect themselves from the known avenues of ID theft,’’ said Joanne McNabb, chief of the California Office of Privacy Protection.

Whether it’s medical record files or long-ago tax returns, people are clamoring for a place to safely unload their personal and business-related financial documents.

The demand for secure shredding — both at home and at work — is what’s driving the growth of document-destruction companies, from mom-and-pop businesses like Linzy’s Absolute Secured to worldwide firms like Canada-based Shred-It.

In California, businesses are required to destroy or render “unreadable’’ and “undecipherable’’ any documents containing personal information, whether it’s a driver’s license or credit card number. About 15 other states have similar laws. Federal law also requires businesses to safeguard consumers’ personal information, prompting some states to crack down on companies that don’t carefully discard their customers’ information.

Commercial shredding comes in several forms — from so-called pierce-and-tear, a type of cross-cut that rips paper into pieces smaller than your thumb, to grinders that reduce it to almost a powder.

Rates vary. Some companies charge by the box, say $70 for up to three 14-inch by 16-inch file boxes. Some charge by time, say an 18-minute stop to do eight or 10 boxes, for $75.

There also are off-site companies like Pacific Storage Co., which shreds large-volume loads from clients like hospitals or banks at its plant where the process is recorded on camera.

Compared with do-it-yourself shredding at home or the office, mobile companies maintain it’s far cheaper, faster — and more secure — to use a one-stop shredding service. A typical job of 250 pounds of paper — about the size of a 95-gallon garbage container — takes just a few minutes to chew up and spit out into a securely locked shredding truck.

“To do the same job with an employee sitting in front of a shredder, it would probably take a week, burn through two or three shredders, and use up an employee’s valuable time,’’ said Doug Rosevold, owner of Viking Shred in Roseville, Calif.

The hardened steel shredding teeth used by most mobile services can rip through just about any type of office metal, including staples, paper clips and other fasteners.

Rosevold was working in the banking industry when he realized the demand for secure document destruction. Like his peers, he says security is a huge issue with clients.

That’s why the $200,000 trucks have remote cameras so customers can watch their files being shredded — live.

“There’s nothing more secure than you visually watching it being shredded,’’ he said. Unless, “it’s putting it in your fireplace and watching it burn up.’’

Shredding companies not only get paid by customers, but also sell their confetti-like tonnage to paper recyclers. Currently, they’re getting about $150 a ton, up from $65 a ton about five years ago.

Absolute Secured’s hydraulic-mounted shredding truck can pulverize about 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of paper an hour, generating about 50 tons a week between its two vehicles.

And though competitors are piling up, co-owner Ray Linzy isn’t concerned.

“There’s a lot of shredders,’’ he said, “but there’s still a lot of paper.’’

Source: By Claudia Buck
McClatchy Newspapers www.pantagraph.com