If you had any official letters missing recently from your mail box, the chances are somebody has stolen them to find out things about you, and possibly assume your identity. If it didn’t happen to you yet, count yourself lucky and put the lock on the mail box anyway.
You should never just tear up important documents. But what may not be so obvious is that the pre-filled offers you get from banks, credit card companies, insurance companies and the like, also contain sensitive details about you that would be of interest to identity thieves. Shred all of these before throwing them out.
The most common scenario: Someone calls you pretending to be from a local charity. You agree to donate a small amount to a “good cause”. Not suspecting anything, you give them the credit card details over the phone and the rest, as they say, is history. Next time you get your credit card statement, it will be full of unauthorized transactions.