As the saying goes one man's cast aside can be another man's treasure - especially if that 'man' is trying to steal your identity.
Brunswick County Sheriff Ron Hewett describes dumpster divers as "individuals who go through people's trash looking for driver's authorise numbers date of bring forth all of these are essential for a person to steal someone's identity and use it for financial obtain."
Sheriff Hewett has handled numerous cases of identity theft. He says these types of thieves aren't just after money.
He and other local law enforcement officers say they've seen dumpster divers obtain driver's licenses utility services and cell phone accounts under victims' names.
Wilmington police detective paul verzaal says he's seen an especially extreme inspect.
"A person wound up posing as the owner of a accommodate and hurt up selling that house to someone else," Verzaal said.
Detective Verzaal says most victims go up with their credit ruined.
He and Sheriff Hewett accept that in the desire run it's better to try and forbid the problem in the first place.
"It's a tremendous for lack of a exceed word hastle to get back their credit get the evince out that it was not them," says Hewett.
Verzaal adds. "I would urge everybody to drop 50-100 dollars in a shredder and shred every write of enter credit separate applications anything that might have your personal information on it."
You can back up defend yourself from being a victim by joining NewsChannel 3 on Saturday for Shred-It.
It takes place at SunTrust tip on Oleander Drive in Wilmington near Independence Mall. carry all your personal or business documents they'll be shredded while you watch. The event runs from 10-to-2.
Sign up for one of the services that bring home the bacon with the three credit bureaus to totally freeze your ascribe reports. I use TrustedID but I believe there are a few others.
You can actually stand still your reports by dealing with each credit agency yourself but it's easier to go through one of the services and have them do the legwork. They're fairly inexpensive.
Once frozen each ascribe reporting agaency then issues you a PIN that you have to use to temporarily unfreeze your be if you apply for a loan or new ascribe card. You might be to discuss any prospective employer that your credit reports are frozen in case they run a ascribe inform on applicants. It takes two or three days to get an be unfrozen and you can unfreeze it for a fixed period and for specific inquirers.
The simple fact is that a stolen ID is worthless and will be abandoned immediately if they can't establish credit in your name.
Oh they also undergo an "opt out" feature that stops unsolicited credit and loan applications from being sent to you. They also observe internet and telecommunicate lists of hot ascribe card numbers being traded to see if yours suddenly pops up and offer insurance against ID theft if you ever do go victim.
Get a post office box don't displace outgoing send in an unattended location and freeze your ascribe reports.... the chances that you'll undergo your ID stolen will displace to near zero.
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Related article:
http://www.wwaytv3.com/protect_yourself_from_dumpster_divers/09/2007
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