Better Businesses Bureau serving Eastern North Carolina will hold its fall “Secure Your ID” Day event on Saturday, October 19, 2013. It will include document shredding, collection of computers and hard-drives for secure destruction, electric/electronics recycling and identity protection tips. Due to the increase in participation, the event will be held at two locations from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the parking lot of Coastal Federal Credit Union (1000 St. Albans Drive) and Lafayette Village (8480 Honeycutt Road) in front of the Executive Office Suites.
In the 2013 Identity Fraud Report by Javelin Strategy & Research, it states that the number of identity fraud incidents increased by one million more consumers over the past year. This equates to one incident of identity fraud every three seconds.
“Shredding paper documents is still a top priority to protect an individual’s identity. However, as new technologies continue to emerge and evolve, thieves are not just following a paper trail, but are using old electronics to steal sensitive information from consumers,” says Toby Barfield, president and CEO of BBB serving Eastern North Carolina. “In hosting our ‘Secure Your ID’ Day events, we look to provide Triangle consumers with a safe way to dispose of their sensitive documents and electronics while educating them on ways they can protect themselves from unscrupulous individuals.”
“Secure Your ID” Day is jointly organized by the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling to raise public awareness and educate Americans on the issues surrounding identity theft. During the event, local partners Costal Federal Credit Union, Executive Office Suites at Lafayette Village, ProShred and GEEP will be on hand educating consumers on protecting their identity. Individuals are encouraged to bring up to three boxes or bags of documents that have been removed from binders and up to five electric/electronic devices, such as computers, cell phones, tablets or TVs, as well as printers, fax machines, vacuums, dvd/cd players, microwaves and toasters or similar products.
GEEP, which stands for Global Electric Electronic Processing, is trusted for their secure electronic recycling. The company will be providing consumers at the BBB event a receipt of electronic devices handed over for destruction. This will be the third “Secure Your ID” Day event that GEEP participated in with BBB.
The April event had nearly 700 participants. Nearly 10,000 lbs of electronics were safely destroyed, as well as nearly 30,000 lbs of documents were shredded. To date, the semi-annual “Secure Your ID” Day events have securely destroyed more than 150,000 lbs of sensitive documents and 19,000 lbs of electronics. Additional event information is available at www.easternnc.bbb.org/secure-your-id.
