My shredding is done! The now empty box is back in Jeff's office. I know that in a matter of weeks, or perhaps even days, the box will be full again.
Our anniversary is coming up - Saturday to be exact. When we were first married, I took on the role of "paper handler". At that time, nobody gave a thought to just tossing random pieces of paper into the trash. We didn't worry, because identity theft hadn't become a "thing" yet.
Little known fact: An amusing story involved King Sebastian of Portugal, who disappeared in 1578 while battling in Morocco. Several "good citizens" tried to become King, but eventually couldn't pull off their disguise, and one such imposter was quickly executed.
Let's fast forward. In the 1960's, identity theft became a real threat to everybody. But, I think most people, my parents for sure, didn't even think twice about this problem.
In 1964, the words "identity theft" was entered into Webster's Dictionary.
The 1980's brought dumpster diving. The thief would go through your garbage, looking for your personal information. And, they found it in spades. This was the time where shredders in home came into play. We, personally have a cross-cut shredder, so even if a thieve went through our garbage (actually big plastic bags), they wouldn't find anything revealing.
In the 1990's, we users were hacked by the use of the Internet. I guess you could call it "ghosting". According to the FCC, in just ten years, up to 62 percent.
By 2011, hacking using viruses, malware and other methods of unauthorized computer access made up a majority of information theft.
It was this scary new method of theft that set off a wide array of “identity theft protection” services.
In 1899, Equifax changed it's name to Retail Credit Company. RCC was collecting information not just on finances and general credit worthiness but education, job history, habits (like drinking or smoking), political views and even marriage problems and sex life. It was alleged that RCC gave bonuses to employees who could scope out negative information on people for the company’s files, even if this info was based entirely on rumor.
So, this is just part of the identity theft, that is occurring today. Phone calls from IRS (they never call), "Medicare" which wants to sell me braces for parts of my body that don't even hurt! And, the list goes on and on.
For now, and probably for the remainder of my life, shredding will be just something I have to do regularly.
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