Annual Community Shredding Day Returns May 7

Back by popular demand for the 11th year, AARP Nebraska and Shred-It will host a free community shredding day in Omaha on Saturday, May 7, 2016.

The drive-through shredding session will be held at The Center Mall at 42 ^nd and Center Sts. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the east end of the top level of The Center Mall’s parking lot. People should enter the parking lot at 40^th & Center Sts.

State-of-the-art mobile shredders will be set up on site for safe and secure shredding, and AARP volunteers will provide unloading assistance. The free service is offered to consumers who bring their household documents; no businesses please. For more information, call (402) 398-9568.

“Financial fraud causes millions of dollars in losses each year,” said Devorah Lanner, associate state director of communications with AARP Nebraska.  “With the tax-filing season behind us, we’re encouraging taxpayers to do a spring cleaning of their old financial documents and other records.”

In 2015 Nebraska residents registered 7,648 complaints about identity theft with the Federal Trade Commission. Identity thieves routinely search through dumpsters and trash cans, looking to find confidential information.

To avoid having your sensitive information compromised, security experts recommend shredding the following types of materials:

• Old documents:  Papers that carry your Social Security number, birth date, signature, account numbers, passwords or PIN numbers.
• Banking:  Canceled or unused checks.  Shred deposit slips and ATM and credit card receipts, once you receive your monthly statements.
• Credit Cards: Preapproved credit card applications and incentive/gift checks from credit card companies.
• Medical: unneeded medical bills.
• Investments: Investment account statements.
• Obsolete ID cards: Expired driver’s licenses, medical insurance cards and passports.

And for those consumers who use a home shredder, experts also recommend the use of a micro-cut model.  Tests have shown that the scraps of paper from a straight or cross-cut shredder can be reassembled by identity thieves.  With a micro-cut shredder, the paper is rendered into impossible-to-reassemble debris.

More information on how to prevent identity theft fraud, and alerts regarding other types of scams, is available from the Fraud Watch Network.