Dumpsters: Gold Mines of Information

Dumpster diving is an increasingly popular activity. Why? For fun and profit. Dumpster diving traditionally is when people collect food to consume, clothing, electronics, and anything else to sell.

The profit part of dumpster diving is taking on a whole new meaning nowadays. Identity fraudsters are diving into dumpsters to obtain any personal information that could be used to commit identity fraud. Because of this, be very careful about throwing away documents and objects containing personal information.

Companies must be more conscious of what they are throwing away now. As part of an internal audit activity, some companies are diving into their dumpsters to verify that documents with customer information or company information were not thrown into the dumpster without being destroyed.

Refer back to our post from December 18th, 2013 to read about cases of sensitive patient information found in dumpsters!

Watch out for dumpster divers!