Let It Rip

Here's a piece that discusses a simple but effective way to guard yourself against identity theft: shred documents that you are tossing that contain personal information (subscription required).

Here's Money's case for shredding:

Everyone's been warned about identity theft. The idea that some hacker can snoop around your hard drive, obtain some account numbers and passwords, and clean out your funds has Americans reaching for the nearest Internet-security software. But it is far less likely that someone is going to break into your computer than that someone will sift through your garbage to get the same information.

One of the best ways to foil trash-picking identity thieves is to shred all sensitive documents before throwing them out. But which shredder to buy?

They wanted to know what the best shredder was, so they conducted a test:

I tested five of the top consumer cross-cut shredders on the market, which range in price from $40 to $380--as I wanted to know if a shredder that is 10 times the price is 10 times as good.

And the winner is:

The Fellowes 8-Sheet Cross-Cut shredder is an ideal at-home machine.

Because:

• Low noise levels when operating
• Auto stop/start, so you don't have to keep switching the machine on or off
• A paper-bin window so you can easily see when it needs to be emptied

The piece then ends with a vital shredding tip:

Make sure you get a cross-cut shredder. Strip-cut shreds are much easier to put back together.

Comments

[Matt Hartrich - Buffalo, NY]

What is the saying -- an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

[lisa ray]

This is a great concept as long as you only use newspaper. White paper is bleached and will hurt your hamster. In addition, the cage would be overwhelmed with paper and unless you used a hamster potty, you would be covering over, instead of removing the dirty area of the cage. Great concept, but I recommend not using this gadget.