According to a report released last year by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, as much as 7 percent of Americans ages 16 and older are victims of identity theft each year. This amounts to annual totals of more than 250 million individuals. In an estimated 86 percent of these cases, culprits used victims’ bank account or credit card information to commit their crimes.
Granted, these cases varied greatly in magnitude. The previously-mentioned report stated many victims were able to resolve their issues within 24 hours. Many experienced no financial loss while about half the ones who did were robbed of $100 dollars or less. Still, these are eye-opening scenarios leaving many consumers leery of allowing even reputable companies any insight into their personal information.
If your business involves accessing customers’ financial records or other potentially sensitive information, this waning public trust could be affecting your bottom line. If wrongdoers were to use any of your clients’ information fraudulently, you could be held responsible. Mobile Shredding in Irvine could be the key to keeping your customers safe from this spreading crime wave.
Small-scale paper shredders are certainly available in almost any store selling office supplies. If you collect large volumes of personal data from those planning to do business with you, though, shredding all those documents yourself could prove to be rather time-consuming. Should those stacks of paperwork become overwhelming, all that information could easily be seen by the wrong people.
That being said, it’s important to choose a company offering Mobile Shredding in Irvine with full certification to provide this service. Those holding the right credentials are monitored by the National Association for Information Destruction, an agency dedicated to making sure such companies aren’t placing your customers at even greater risk of identity theft. With the digital version of this crime also on the rise, you might also want to consider seeking out a company offering safe destruction of your old hard drives.
People know the threat is out there, and if they place their trust in you enough to provide their private information, letting them down could be the downfall of your company. Give them the security of knowing once their information leaves your hands; it doesn’t end up in the hands of someone with less than noble intentions.