posted 2006/09/22 at 23:55
I have long resisted the urge to go out and buy a shredder for all those credit card applications and such that I get through the mail, simply because I didn't think it was worth the expense. Normally what I like to do is save up a bunch of those things, then while I'm listening to music or a television show ("listening" because it isn't necessarily important to be watching the screen at the time), then gather the junk mail up, cut out all the parts that have any identifying information on them, then shred them finely by hand. Not only does this save the expense of a shredder, but because it's so slow and deliberate it makes me carefully recognize what every document that passes through my hands is, which greatly reduces the chances of ever accidentally cutting up something that might be of actual importance.
That being said, since I started graduate school, I've kind of been letting my pile of junk mail go. For two years. *headdesk* Tonight I finally decided to start working on getting all of it cut up, but just looking at the credit card offers that come my way these days I'm astounded by how often in a given envelope full of letters your identifying information -- either your name, address, or a special code put in thirty different places that is obviously unique to the offer sent to you -- appears. Given the rise of identity theft in the Internet Age you'd think that credit card companies would start getting better about this, but if anything they seem to be getting worse. If the rate at which I cut up junk mail earlier tonight is any indication, I may have no choice but to get a shredder just so I don't spend a lifetime hunting down all that junk in the junk mail I already have.
You really want to be freaked out, check this out. If nothing else, that'll convice you to buy a shredder.
http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/creditcard/application.shtml
That should be where my bold text points.
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon