It is usually starts with the theft of some portion of your identity, which is then used to obtain additional portions of your identity. A thief may take a little time in completing the task of acquiring all the relevant information - then bam !!
It is most unlikley that a thief will divulge how and when they obtained any part of the information and may well be the reason you do not hear of prosecutions of dumpster diving. Additionally, it is not very exciting for some journalist to write about such events.
If you have a contactless credit card and/or an ePassport, I hope you have that protected too. Have a look at www.scanguard.com.au as they have a relatively low cost solution that works.
It was an old media/journo trick.
there were even journos who specialized in it.... kinda like a cross between a CSI and a PoS
I have never heard of Identity theft being specifically linked to bin-raiding.... and with more people owning shredders, I dont think it's going to go epidemic anytime soon
but think of it as a preventative measure - a kind of 'herd immunity'
if lots of people DIDN'T shred their details, then identity theft via bin-trawling may become more common and you may end up falling foul of a bin-trawler
I've seen scams where people will take a bank statement or other proofs of identification to prove the address of the house.
A person can phone a locksmith to unlock a house using the false identification and then they have access to the items in the other persons house.
So, shredding or ripping up your bills and statements is recommended.
I remember reading once that one time Richard Madely came home and found a journalist raiding his bins for personal info. He said he had heard of it happening but to actually catch someone doing it was scarey.
For years I've been diligently following advice to remove all personal information from anything I throw away in my bins. There are plenty of organisations saying there are hordes of rubbish-robbing identity thieves out there. But I have never seen a single prosecution and I can't find one online. Does anyone know of any?
