Do you shred letters?

Col7777

My daughter was telling me of a scam she saw on TV recently, if it has been discussed then forgive me.

What the scam was:
A lady telephoned a locksmith saying she had been out shopping and lost her keys, when the locksmith arrived she shown him proof she lived there by showing him some letters with her name on etc.
The locksmith gained entry and she was in, she got the letters from the recycle bin outside the house.
I don't know if locksmiths require any more proof but this one didn't it seemed.

I used to shred my letters but the shredder broke, after this I'm going to get another one.

4743hudsonj

Col7777 wrote: »

My daughter was telling me of a scam she saw on TV recently, if it has been discussed then forgive me.

What the scam was:
A lady telephoned a locksmith saying she had been out shopping and lost her keys, when the locksmith arrived she shown him proof she lived there by showing him some letters with her name on etc.
The locksmith gained entry and she was in, she got the letters from the recycle bin outside the house.
I don't know if locksmiths require any more proof but this one didn't it seemed.

I used to shred my letters but the shredder broke, after this I'm going to get another one.

I beleive they did exactly this on the real hustle.

Thats why i own a pair of THESE. That way you can cut out any details into tiny cubes and put them in the bin (I also scribble over in pen too). The rest goes in the recycling.

geordieracer

We always shred our letter s and use the bit as cat litter

RadoJo

We have an open fire which takes care of all our confidential paperwork, but our chimney sweep told us that he sees a lot of personal stuff in people's grates over the summer when they haven't had a fire for a while - good job he's an honest person!

tomwakefield

I always shred or burn anything with my name or address on, and anything related to money.

Janey123

I think this was the TV show called the Real Hustle. It's pretty good and helps you get clued up on the type of ways you can get scammed. Since that show I ALWAYS shred my letters.

Jane

MrsBartolozzi

Any letters without private or sensitive contents (maybe an advert for a bank's insurance or credit cards etc), but with my name and address on, I just rip off the address bit and put the letters in the recycling bin. If there's sensitive contents of the letter then I save up these with the address bits and burn them.

Norant

Hello.

We keep all of our personal details in the house,and once a month we have a very small fire in the garden.

KimYeovil

No, I just tear them - they go brown at the edges too quickly when shredded.


Edit: Oops, sorry. That's 'lettuce' not 'letters'. Never mind.
.

Lirin

I burn them.

molerat

All addressed stuff goes in the shredder. If anyone wants my bank details they are quite welcome to rummage through the tiny bits of shredded paper covered in decomposing vegetable matter and golden liquid in the compost bin