What is Identity Crime?
Identity Crime is increasingly becoming a major problem and causes significant damage to individuals, small businesses to large corporations and at Government level. This is a concern to iShred, and in this article, we look at what it is, and ways to help ensure your security.
First, what is identity crime?
Identity criminal behaviour includes:
- Theft of personal identity information – driver’s license, passport, financial documentation
- Assuming another identity for fraudulent purposes – taking out loans, misleading authorities
- Using stolen and fake identities to facilitate other crimes.
Finding out that your personal or business identity has been stolen and being used fraudulently can be devastating, both personally and financially. iShred can help you protect yourself and your business with our onsite document shredding services.
What does identity theft cost Australians?
Estimates taken recently by the Attorney-General’s Department indicate that identity theft costs Australians upwards of $1.6 billion each year, with the majority of that being lost by individuals.
Identity crime is also a key facilitator in organised crime groups, who use identity crime to commit large scale thefts, illegal immigration, money laundering, terrorism and drug trafficking, which is estimated to cost Australia $15 billion each year.
What can you do to ensure that your identity is safe?
Your identity can be stolen from acts such as throwing an old bank statement in the regular trash, or not properly disposing of old identifying documents such as expired driver’s licenses and passports.
iShred Onsite Document Destruction can securely destroy these types of documents. We can also help protect your identity with:
- Uniform Destruction
- E-media destruction (hard drives, USB’s)
- Tax documents and financial records
- Office Relocation Clean Outs
- Office / Warehouse Document Clean Outs
What is Identity Crime? – iShred Secure Document Destruction Melbourne
For more information on how iShred’s document destruction services can help you and your business protect against identity theft, contact us or call us on 1300 763 688.
iShred does advise; that you undertake a check on your legal requirements prior to shredding, as there are Laws regarding the period you legally must retain certain documents.
Useful Links:
https://www.acic.gov.au/about-crime/organised-crime-groups/identity-crime
