Dumpster diving remains a major identity theft risk

Posted by Joe on July 23rd, 2008

While criminals may be increasingly using technology to perpetrate identity theft, it appears that one of the oldest and most low tech forms of the crime still remains a major risk. Two major "dumpster diving" incidents have occurred in the last few days which potentially exposed an untold number of consumers to identity theft.

A camera man from a local San Francisco television station caught unidentified men taking away armloads of paperwork from dumpsters behind the city's Human Services Department. Witnesses reported seeing a number of pieces of personal information including Social Security numbers, identification cards, full names and addresses in the unlocked garbage bins.

The head of San Francisco Human Services, Trent Rohrer, admitted to the failure of his department to keep the information secure. "We do have a whole set of policies and procedures to prevent this stuff from happening, and clearly there are flaws in that," said Rohrer. He also promised a "top to bottom" investigation of the incident.

On the other side of the country, in Washington DC, a local news program is reporting another unlocked dumpster with hundreds of documents related to real estate transactions. This paperwork included detail financial information about the individuals involved as well as social security numbers. The files had apparently been the property of a real estate company that went out of business a few months earlier.

"This is a tragedy to find all these personal documents in a Dumpster in an alley," said D.C. police Lt. Bill Farr, who was at the scene investigating.

Once identity thieves have the type of information that was exposed in these two low tech breaches, it is relatively easy for them to commit one of the most common forms of identity theft known as new account fraud. Using details such as name, address and social security number a criminal can begin securing financial and other accounts in a victim's name. Luckily, there are steps that you can take as a consumer to protect yourself.

First, it is important to realize that your own refuse can contain very sensitive information and it is important to dispose of it properly. Shredding sensitive documents, old credit cards, computer disks/cds is a good way to make these items useless to an identity thief. You can read our advice on how to select the right shredder to learn more.

Second, you can be conscious of who is storing your information and be educated in how they treat it. It is a good idea to ask any companies that keep records of your information what their policies are for storage and disposal of sensitive items. While the fact that a company has a policy to prevent data breaches isn't necessarily a guarantee that your information won't end up in the wrong hands, it is a very bad sign if the company doesn't have a policy. Make sure you are comfortable about how your personal information will be handled and disposed before you disclose anything to a third party.

Finally, it is a good idea to consider using an identity theft protection service. Although there is no way to prevent all identity theft from happening, many of the services we have reviewed can take proactive steps to help limit the risk of victimization. Most also offer assistance with recovery if you are an identity theft victim. You can learn more by visiting our guide to identity theft protection services.