Stockton Paper Shredding Event Set for May 12

Better Business Bureau invites Stockton residents to a free paper shredding event on Saturday, May 12 at the 22 W Yokuts Avenue location of CommunityBank of San Joaquin.

Pacific Shredding will provide mobile shredding trucks on site from 11 a.m. to 1p.m., allowing consumers to shred up to five boxes of sensitive documents for free.

Identity theft, on average, affects over eight million adults each year, costing Americans billions of dollars.

 “Identity theft is a serious crime affecting a wide population,” said Gary Almond, president of BBB serving Northeast California. “Shredding sensitive documents is an excellentway to help in preventing the crime.”

Consumers are urged to shred anything containing financial information, account numbers, PINs, birth dates or Social Security numbers.

For more information, contact BBB at 916-443-6843 or visit necal.bbb.org.

BBB offers the following top five ways consumers can safeguard their identities, in addition to shredding sensitive documents:

1. Check your credit report at least once each year.  There is only one source authorized to give you ONE FREE annual credit file disclosure per year from each of the three consumer credit reporting companies:  Call 877-322-8228 or visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
   
   
2. Keep your computer system and browser software up to date, and set to the highest security level you can tolerate.
   
   
3. Never use e-mail to communicate sensitive personal information such as your user name, password, Social Security number or credit card number.
   
   
4. Don’t store passwords, tax returns or other financial information on your computer hard drive.
   
   
5. Don’t use your cell phone to store credit card numbers or other financial information.