By Dan Marshall

Nanaimo RCMP urge people to shred personal documents

Dec 9, 2016 | 11:28 PM

NANAIMO — Identity theft can cause major headaches and cost a lot of money.

Take for example the story of a Nanaimo man who had $20,000 to $30,000 racked up on a credit card with his name on it. He was shopping at a high end store and tossed his receipts in the garbage, rather than shredding them.

Police say there are individuals who get paid money to dig up those receipts for the purpose of stealing someone’s identity. In this case the man’s information was embossed onto a credit card that was real enough to make in-store purchases.

Fortunately he checked his bank statement within 30 days, which allowed his bank to work with him so he wasn’t on the hook for the credit card bill.

RCMP Const. Gary O’Brien says any document that you have that includes your personal information should be shredded.

modified weapon

Sawed-off shotgun seized after Nanaimo RCMP spot well-known offender

50m ago

rainbow eyes

Nanaimo judge hands old growth logging protestor additional jail time

2h ago

Paris Bound

Nanaimo race walker Olivia Lundman qualifies for Paris Olympic Games

4h ago

“Your name, date of birth, driver’s licence, SIN number, possibly a credit card, that information can be taken to a bank and an unscrupulous person can set up a bank account or a line of credit in your name. Your reputation can be destroyed quite easily,” said O’Brien.

The City of Nanaimo issued a warning this week as well that their refuse and recycling collectors have seen people searching through yellow bags at the curbside.

This could be in an effort to steal personal information that may be on discarded documents. 

With that in mind there’s a confidential shredding day in Nanaimo on Saturday. Anyone can bring documents to the Save on Foods at Woodgrove Centre between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to have them destroyed.

There’s a suggested donation of $10 per bag or box of papers, with money raised going to Nanamo Crime Stoppers.

Officers will be on hand to answer any questions you may have about identity theft.