What is the point of keeping outdated or old records that are just making your space look disorganised and making you vulnerable to identity crimes?
Holding sensitive information for a long time can put your reputation at higher risk. Whether personal or professional, shred your sensitive documents on time to prevent data breaches or frauds.
But which documents should you shred?
Read this blog to know sensitive and confidential documents that should be destroyed on an immediate basis:
1. Bank statements
Bank statements like deposit and withdrawal receipts or ATM slips, if not shredded on time, may end up in the wrong hands and anyone can misuse the information.
Such statements should be destroyed in the safest manner as soon as the necessary information has been gleaned.
2. Credit card slips
Credit or debit cards are the biggest treasures for fraudsters and thieves.
The card statements contain key information about your account, spending habits and identity.
Such statements can be used for fraudulent means and you can become vulnerable to identity thefts.
Once you have used credit card statements, get rid of them in the most confidential way.
3. Expired business documents
Any business documents such as employment contracts, property purchases and business deals are confidential.
These contain detailed data regarding your business, customers, employees and the people you work with.
Such a goldmine of information can be highly valuable to a thief.
Once the document has served its purpose, scan and save an electronic copy and destroy hard copies to ensure its safety.
4. Tax records
While record-keeping is important, holding old tax records having highly confidential information can be disastrous.
It’s recommended to keep your written tax records for five years from the lodgement date.
The majority of tax returns are now paper-free and completed online. You can scan all your financial records and save them in a digital file.
Make sure to safely shred all your tax records.
5. Payslips
Payslips contain sensitive details regarding employee, company, income, taxes, bank and health care.
To ensure this personal information stays safe, back up all the necessary data and shred paper copies of old payslips as soon as possible.
6.Outdated medical records
Personal or professional medical records such as bills, receipts and lab tests must be shredded once the data becomes outdated or is no longer needed.
If not destroyed properly, anyone can access and misuse this information which can lead to serious dangers for the patient and for your liable medical career.
7. Boarding pass
Many travellers assume that once their flight is over, their boarding pass is useless and often leave it behind on the aeroplane.
But this is a wrong practice.
Any hacker can steal your personal information with the use of a simple barcode scanning device.
And once scanned, your boarding pass can disclose your name, email, phone number, flight details, and your airline account number. Any fraudster can make the wrong use of this information and can land you in trouble.
Once you’ve reached your destination, make sure to shred the boarding pass.
In the end…
Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes.
However, by shredding your papers you can prevent any unfortunate event.
It’s recommended to consult a paper shredding company in Perth to make sure all your confidential and vulnerable information is destroyed safely and efficiently.
For more information, dial 0458 088 000.