Shred to Prevent Identity Theft
Identity theft has been a rapidly increasing problem in recent years. Often banks and credit card companies will send you all sorts of documents and applications (mostly not requested) only for it to be put in the trash. That was until we were told to tear up all these documents on the premise that this would help protect against identity fraud.
Well, according to (NBC News) you can think again.
“With five applications, and a little muscle, we started ripping. Scotch taped them back together. And wrote around the tape filling out the application the way an identity thief might if he’d been digging in our garbage.
The result is a messy, crooked, patchwork each time. Who would possibly give a credit card based on this type of application?
The answer: Some of the biggest banks in America. Of our five taped-up applications, three returned new credit cards to us - lines of credit worth more than 21-thousand dollars.”
According to KSL.com:
In a statement, chase card services says it has “rigorous policies” for handling applications and a “special handling process” for the rare torn applications. In this case, however, “it is clear to us our procedures were not entirely followed for this particular application...and we are investigating.”
For the two cards it issued, Bank of America, which merged with MBNA, says the applications “both went through the proper verification processes” and that “the signature, social security number and birth date matched” a (current) customer with excellent credit.
I guess, the moral of this story is to invest in a cross shredder!
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