Throwing away envelopes- should I destroy name and address?

vitamin_joe

I wasn't sure what forum to put this in, but here seems as good a place as any.

Currently, when I throw away an envelope, I cut my name and the first line of my address up into little pieces so it can't be read. Am I being paranoid? Do I only need to destroy important information like bank statements? Or is this a worthwhile precaution?

Cat501

Really can't see the point myself. Loads of people have their surname and initial on their front door/buzzer or in the phone book, and everyone's name and address is on the electoral roll for anyone to see

vitamin_joe

Thanks, that's what I've been thinking. You've put my mind at rest, and I'll stop doing it.

I'm not even certain why I started- maybe all the panic stories about identity fraud a few years back. But a name and an address is no use to anyone is it?

GreyQueen

I cut them out and bung them through my shredder.

Not everyone is visible on the electoral register; you can elect to be on the edited version which means that no one can view your details by tipping up at the Council and asking to see the Register and they can't be used for marketing.

I'd regard it as sensible practice to destroy this data. And, when random bins are sampled, about 70% contain enough personal data to perpetrate ID fraud.

Someone stole my bin bag a coupla years ago. They now know a few things about me; that I recycle a lot and that I buy reduced stuff on yellow labels........and let's see how far that will get them............:rotfl:

Cat501

Well yes, forgot that part about the ER GQ But I still think most people have their name on their door. I'd only destroy my name and address on an envelope if the envelope had something else compromising on it, like, I dunno, National Swingers Association or something.

NB I have never received such an envelope

Evie74_2

I'm with GQ on this one - the only envelopes that go direct into the recycling are the window kind (and only then after I've re-used them for shopping lists etc!). I don't have a shredder (it's on the wish list) but I do have a fairly hefty lidded basket by the fireplace into which ripped out name/address details will go, along with anything at all which would be helpful to an ID thief. Then in winter it makes useful kindling for the wood burner.

The fact of my existence may be a matter of public record, but I'm not going to make it easy for people to pinch my identity. Anyone rifling my bin would discover (a) I compost and recycle a lot and (b) my kids are wasteful so-and-so's who rarely finish everything that's on their plates!

Evie xx

short_bird

We shred any part of the post with address or name and address. Works for us.

Cat501

Best change that thread title back OP

I'm clearly in the minority, but my view is still that given the choice between rooting through your bin bags to find your name and glancing at your door/buzzer, any sensible crook would do the latter (and unless they're rooting through bin bags at the tip, they're probably going to be close enough to do that!). Enough people have their surname AND initial displayed to make it pointless going through a grotty bag just to find a name. Likewise, the phone book - still plenty of full names and addresses in there.

Mind you I shove most stuff through the shredder anyway, both for convenience and for the fun of it, so it's not really an issue for me

I'm trying to think what people would infer from my bin bags, and all I can say is, it's a good thing wine bottles go in for recycling

pollypenny

OH shreds everything with a name on it. I think he goes too far.

GreyQueen

I live in a block of flats and know several other people who live in flats and visit their homes and no one has their names on buzzers at all, just the flat number. Perhaps this is more common when the flats are in divided houses as opposed to big tower blocks like mine?

You can actually infer an awful lot about a household by going through it's rubbish which is why nothing with any info on it gets into mine. Read about a woman who had a sinister stalker calling her up. He knew loads of stuff about her, where she'd been, the colour of her new underwear, lots of very personal stuff and it was getting very creepy.

An experienced police officer recognised what was happening; he was stealing her bin bag each week just before the rubbish was collected. Reciept for the new underwear with description inc the colour of it? Yup, in the bin. Cops laid in wait for him and caught him redhanded.

So, colour me paranoid, but everything goes into the shredder and the shreddings into the compost heap. And I've never been in the phone book at all and my number is set up to be withheld when I call out. But I'm almost certainly a trifle peculiar but I live in a very rough inner city neighbourhood among drug dealers and other villains, so I have good reasons for what I do.

Each to their own, say I.

vitamin_joe

Cat501 wrote: »

Best change that thread title back OP

Heh, you're right!
[I'd added 'resolved' to the title, before others replied]

I'm just popping out, I'll read the replies more fully and respond, when I get back.