Free paper shredding and identity theft prevention advice and tools
To help combat identity theft and educate the public on best practices to secure personal information, Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York, in partnership with Tops Friendly Markets, Shred-It, AT&T and the Greater Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce, will host Secure Your ID Day from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 7, across Upstate New York (Western New York, Rochester, and Central New York).
One of these free community shredding events will be held at Tops Friendly Market at 2265 Downer St., Baldwinsville, in the parking lot.
Community members are welcome to bring up to three boxes or bags of documents for free on site shredding and volunteers from the partnering organizations well be on hand to assist and distribute safety tips.
Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York knows the best lines of defense are secure paper shredding, education and routine safety measures to protect digital information. Data breaches and other cyber security incidents continue dominating the news, so people may not think about the importance of shredding old sensitive or secure documents. Once an identity thief gets a hold of your information, they have it, regardless of how they got it.
BBB offers the following tips to protect your identity:
- Check your credit reports regularly. You’re entitled to a free credit report a year at annualcreditreport.com.
- Monitor account statements to be sure you were the source for all activity.
- Shred credit card applications and statements before throwing them away.
- Never give out personal information.
- Look for secured websites. Make sure the website has a locked pad icon and “https” in the URL.
- Protect your PINs and other passwords and change them regularly.
- Cut up credit cards before pitching them and limit the amount of cards you carry.
- Consider opting out of pre-approved credit card offers, which can be stolen from your mailbox by identity thieves.
- Update your computer with the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
- Sign up for the Do Not Call List at donotcall.gov.
