The Houston Shredder

Professional Houston Shredding Services

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Document shredding has been recognized as the efficient method for the disposal of documents. In homes shredding is cumbersome and inefficient. Businesses find it difficult to maintain a dedicated employee to perform the task of document shredding.

Most companies don’t generate the necessary volumes to warrant the use of dedicated personnel for shredding tasks. The employee in charge of maintaining the records is also required to perform the task of destroying them. This eats into the productivity time of the employee. It could also cause a stressed employee to lax on the proper shredding for documents leaving room for information theft.

This has led to the birth of a line of service that is dedicated to the shredding of documents. The professional Houston shredding services provide dedicated service of destroying documents. Through their secure document shredding services they provide businesses with the necessary protection for their information.

A professional shredding service offers a responsible way of document removal and destruction. The general method employed by these companies includes secure document retrieval, document removal, shred and disposal of the shredded materials in a clean and efficient manner.

Most professional shredding services provide offices with a secure bin which is maintained under lock and key, to deposit their documents into. An employee of the service then visits the office in his official truck that holds the shredding device in it. He uses his set of keys to securely remove the bag containing the documents that are inside the bin to the waiting truck. Then these documents are taken inside a locked and secured room inside the truck and shredded. The company can choose to supervise the process of shredding if they so choose. The service provider then issues a certificate of completion of shredding to the business. The shredding is done with high quality blades that turn all the documents into meaningless confetti thus ensuring proper destruction. These bales of paper are then sent for recycling and that fulfils your duty for environmental protection.

Without the use of these services a company is bound to lose valuable time and productivity can also be compromised. There are many such services available. Finally, a word of caution, businesses must consider the credentials, the trust policy of the service and proximity before handing over sensitive documents.

Shred for a Sense of Security

Everyone’s feeling a bit more vulnerable these days. The economy is uncertain; jobs are less secure. Times are tough and people are wondering what they can do to protect themselves from all sorts of disasters – losing a job, losing health insurance, losing the savings they spent their lives accumulating. Unfortunately, people need to protect themselves from crimes as well. Incidences of theft tend to occur more often during tough economic times. And in our society today, that can mean identity theft.

How do people protect themselves in tough economic times? People have stopped spending as freely, only plunking down cash for things they really need. Luxury items will have to wait for better economic times. With people worried about job security and how to meet monthly bills, anxiety levels are elevating. What can be done to help alleviate that anxiety?

It’s always good, when feeling vulnerable, to take some steps to help yourself feel more protected. When facing the prospect of identity theft, it’s easy to blame the electronic age. People tend to think that most identity theft happens online – on your computer, with your bank, buying things with a credit card online. But the reality is that the most common form of identity theft happens the old fashioned way. Thieves go through your trash and your paper recycling. What are they looking for? Paper documents containing your personal and private information. These could be bank statements, credit card statements, and receipts from purchases. Thieves are looking for any pieces of information they can find to put together a profile of your personal information.

So if you’re trying to protect yourself from identity theft, what’s the best precaution to take? Experts will tell you that the best way to protect yourself is to shred your personal information. Shred your bank statements. Shred your credit card receipts. Shred your old documents, such as tax documents you no longer need, before they leave your possession.  A personal shredder is well worth the investment because it returns peace of mind. Using a document shredder on a regular basis means you are taking a giant step towards protecting yourself from having your identity stolen. Shredding is a proactive step, just like locking your car door or installing an alarm system.

What do you do if your intentions are good but your follow through needs work? There are those of us who, while we mean to do it, get behind on our document shredding. Facing an enormous pile of documents needing to be shredded can be an anxiety-producing situation. It’s always tempting to simply put the documents in the paper recycling or the trash and hope for the best. A better solution, and one that will help you sleep better at night, is to hire a paper shredding company. Many document shredding companies offer occasional services and can meet your needs for a one time shredding visit. You can also schedule shredding services on a regular basis.

When facing economic times that make you feel out of control, it’s a good feeling to be proactive and to know that you’re taking all the steps you can to protect yourself from identity theft. Shredding documents in a timely and safe fashion, and often trusting that task to the experts, is a great way to feel more protected.

Paper Shredding-Eliminating the Possibility of Identity Theft

Shredding of documents is now a normal business approach of many people who want to protect their privacy. It helps them to completely destroy the confidential or important information that they no longer need, in order to eliminate a single opportunity of any kind of identity theft. However, it is a normal course in any business that when it experiences further growth, the amount of the documents that are confidential, increase and they need to be disposed properly to prevent personal equipments as well as information.

Therefore, it is safe to make use of these services as they are easy and effective. They help you to get rid of the old documents, meanwhile securing the confidential information. These services are extremely affordable. They make an excellent option to help your business in destroying the documents that are of no use to you. With this you can also contribute to the environment. As they recycle the products, hence they are able to prevent deforestation.

You can even opt for paper shredding to work in a more efficient and safer manner as well as healthy environment. It is a sure way, if you want to protect your documents and important information that it normally contains because it destroys the information before it become accessible to any outside person. It’s true that today trash cans have become the source of criminal element. This is why people want to look for the ways that can prove safer for them and their businesses.

Further, this aims at the overall protection from any intrusion. It is proved to be consistently effective. Now, if you are adopting a complete document destroying policy then know that it is committed to give you complete safety. It works brilliantly in an office environment in real terms. In addition, often a question strikes our minds that what if we opt for gage locks on dumpsters? The reason behind is that they are not very secure. In fact, you personal information can become more accessible to the thieves because a lock on a dumpster alerts them about something really significant and valuable inside. Hence, it is important to look for the more protected and professional ways to be able to handle the problems related to data and documents effectively. This makes a guarantee to prevent identity thefts and to ensure running of secure work business environment. Decide on them to avoid devastating consequences.

Identity Theft and Shredding

Identity theft generally occurs when a person uses bits of information about a person, which is usually the person’s social security number, and uses that information to represent himself or herself as that particular person for cheating purposes. Examples of such cheating and fraudulent activities are very common. The fraudulent person may use these pieces of information to their advantage and obtain credit cards, loans, apartments, getting a cell phone, buying a house or car, etc and all this in someone else’s name. The number of victims facing experiencing such crimes is not a small number. A rough estimate puts the number of identity theft victims anything near the 700,000 mark.

It is very easy for criminals to get hold of the social security number of an individual. The social security number is used by most people as a proof of their identity and is used in universities, schools, libraries, insurance, banks, military, securities trading, etc. identity thieves scan through the garbage outside cafes, bars, restaurants, houses and business offices so that they can find the social security numbers of the individuals, as the social security number is being rampantly used in various places as proof of identity. As the paper in the garbage is generally not shred, just crushed up and thrown away, it is very easy to get the social security number. Once the miscreants get hold of the number, then there is no way stopping them from misusing that number for their own fraudulent motives.

There is another way of getting the social security number. Generally the thieves check the garbage outside offices, banks, mortgage companies and ATM counters, in search of loan slips or credit slips or ATM slips. Many of these documents also carry the social security number or the bank account number of the individual. Once the thieves get hold of either of the numbers, either they use it themselves or pass the information to some other thief or a group of thieves. All this happens because the slips are not shred. If the slips were shred, the thieves could do no harm, even if they go on sifting through the garbage all day.

So, it is very important that we all understand the importance of shredders and shredding. It is high time that all of us, be it an individual, a business house, banks, mortgage houses, cafes, restaurants or the law enforcing agencies, should understand the benefits of shredding and use it to safeguard our interests.

Professional Houston Shredding Services

Document shredding has been recognized as the efficient method for the disposal of documents. In homes shredding is cumbersome and inefficient. Businesses find it difficult to maintain a dedicated employee to perform the task of document shredding.

Most companies don’t generate the necessary volumes to warrant the use of dedicated personnel for shredding tasks. The employee in charge of maintaining the records is also required to perform the task of destroying them. This eats into the productivity time of the employee. It could also cause a stressed employee to lax on the proper shredding for documents leaving room for information theft.

This has led to the birth of a line of service that is dedicated to the shredding of documents. The professional Houston shredding services provide dedicated service of destroying documents. Through their secure document shredding services they provide businesses with the necessary protection for their information.

A professional shredding service offers a responsible way of document removal and destruction. The general method employed by these companies includes secure document retrieval, document removal, shred and disposal of the shredded materials in a clean and efficient manner.

Most professional shredding services provide offices with a secure bin which is maintained under lock and key, to deposit their documents into. An employee of the service then visits the office in his official truck that holds the shredding device in it. He uses his set of keys to securely remove the bag containing the documents that are inside the bin to the waiting truck. Then these documents are taken outside to the truck and shredded on-site. The company can choose to supervise the process of shredding if they so choose. The service provider then issues a certificate of destruction of shredding to the business. The shredding is done with high quality blades that turn all the documents into meaningless confetti thus ensuring proper destruction. These bales of paper are then sent for recycling and that fulfils your duty for environmental protection.

Without the use of these services a company is bound to lose valuable time and productivity can also be compromised. There are many such services available. Finally, a word of caution, businesses must consider the credentials, the trust policy of the service and proximity before handing over sensitive documents.

Document Shredding and its importance

 The shredding of documents through the use of paper shredders has become a popular trend these days. There are various reasons for shredding of documents instead of disposing them the regular way.

One of the biggest threats posed by the improper disposal of confidential documents is misuse of the same. There has been a rapid increase in identity thefts. These thefts work on the basis of using the identity of another person, for committing various kinds of crimes. These crimes are mainly done for financial benefits. For example, if the credit card statement has been disposed without shredding or tearing the same, then the number of the credit card can be easily accessible to the thieves. Here, they can use the credit card number for their own benefits and purchase various products and charge it to the credit card owner. Often these crimes are not recognized until it is too late and thus the credit card owners have to pay the price for the same.

Another common identity theft crime is using the identity of another person for committing crimes in their names. These can be the work of serious master minds and the person whose social security number or any other related document has been used, can get into serious trouble. Hence it is always advised that document shredding is the best way of disposing all private and confidential information.

There are various other benefits of the process of document shredding. No traces of previous records are found. Hence the chances of getting into trouble due to any such matters can also be avoided. Document shredding is one of the easiest and the most suggested way of disposing documents. Since multiple documents are being shredded at the same time a lot of time is saved. The process of shredding also ensures that the documents are shredded so finely that no content on them is visible to others. This totally eliminates the risk of misuse of these documents. Also the tearing of documents takes a much longer time and does not give you such fine results. Hence it is always good to use document shredding devices rather than doing it from hand.

The document shredding process should not be restricted to offices but should also be used at home. Both places need the proper methods of document shredding because misuse of the same can happen everywhere. This is the best way to avoid identity thefts.

A Scary Story About Document Destruction

Don’t think you need to shred?

Read this story from one of our customers.

My mother was used to throwing our trash away in the trash cans outside our house, which then got tossed into the ubiquitous garbage dumpster on Monday morning when the trash man came. No one ever thought someone would actually go through the trash cans. It was a nice neighborhood. We weren’t throwing away anything special. And after all, why would she need to destroy anything before throwing it away? We had nothing to hide.

Okay, so maybe you were thinking about shredding your junk mail in 1996, but we weren’t. For it’s worth, I wasn’t even of legal drinking age at the time. Nor was I responsible for taking out the trash. But that’s not the point. The point is that someone went through our trash sometime in the summer of 1996, and wreaked havoc on my family’s credit and good name, not to mention finances.

Yes, it turns out whoever went through our trash was able to piece together enough information about our family to apply for a mortage, have their apartment heated and well-lit, get cable and internet, and go on quite the shopping sprees at both Macy’s and Nordstrom’s. This went on for a year. We didn’t find out until the fall of 1997 when a bill collector called. I answered the phone.

Me: “Hello, Miller residence.”

Caller: “Yes, we’re looking to speak with Joanna Miller please regarding an important business matter.”

Me: “Sure, may I ask who’s calling please?”

Caller: “CR Solutions.”

Me: “Um, may I ask what this is regarding?”

Caller: “We need to speak with Joanna Miller please, is she available?”

My mother always told me to get a name and reason for the call before passing along any calls to her or anyone in the family, but it was clear this guy wasn’t going to budge. It sounded suspicious and I had a bad feeling in my stomach when I ran upstairs to let my mom know someone was on the line. When my mom came down to take the call, she seemed confused, and a tad bit concerned. The look on her face said “Who could this be?” as she picked up the receiver, and I sat there in the kitchen the entire time, curious to find out just who in the world this suspicious man was and why he was calling for my mother.

Mom: “A Macy’s card? Good lord, what?? I don’t have a Macy’s card. You must have the wrong number.”

Caller: “No, ma’am, we have the right number. And you now owe $2000.00 plus $686.00 in late fees and charges, due immediately.”

Mom: “There’s no way. I don’t have a Macy’s account. Who did you say is calling?”

According to my mom, the mysterious man on the other end of the line then confirmed her social security number, home address, prior address, and maiden name. I watched my mom’s face turn white and she hung up the phone with a dazed look of confusion on her face.

Needless to say, my family’s identity had been stolen. The thieves had managed to gather my mother and father’s social security numbers, along with our address and other key pieces of information about our family from our trash. And we never had a clue until the day we received the call from the collection agency.

My parents wised up, after a little investigation, a review of their credit report, a couple hundred hours, an attorney, and several thousand dollars. The thieves were eventually caught. My parents started using a shredder to destroy anything that contained personally identifiable information before throwing away.

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America. Don’t become a victim. Check your credit report regularly, be careful with whom you share social security and account numbers, and shred ANY documents that contain personal info before tossing them into the trash. If you live in the Houston area, check out Shredding Houston, a Houston-based recycling service that comes to your residence or business and picks up your shredding, at your convenience, and destroys it securely. Find out how Shredding Houston can help protect your identity and good name by taking care of your shredding.

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