Better Business Bureau serving Eastern North Carolina held its fifth “Secure Your ID” Day event on Saturday, April 17. More than 420
participants took part in the free community awareness event. BBB provided
participants with a safe way to destroy documents containing sensitive
information and distributed information to help educate consumers on ways to
further protect themselves from identity theft.
Held at the
Coastal Federal Credit Union on St. Albans Drive in Raleigh, nearly 16,000
pounds of documents were shredded. Participants dropped off an array of
documents that included check books, bank statements, school records, utility
bills, credit card receipts and register receipts. Shredding services were
provided by Cintas Document Management (www.cintas.com/DocumentManagement/)
and ProShred Security (www.proshred.com).
“Shredding
documents gives you the comfort that your personal information and records are
actually destroyed,” said event participant, Carolyn Grey of Durham. “I had been
saving my documents at home since last year. This event was a great way to
dispose of them.”
To further
assist consumers, BBB partnered with the North Carolina Department of State
Treasurer (www.nccash.com)
to provide participants an opportunity to search for unclaimed property.
Representatives from the Treasurer’s office were on hand to help participants
search for money that was owed to them. They searched records of old bank
accounts, wages, utility deposits, insurance policy proceeds, stocks, bonds and
contents from safe deposit boxes that have typically been abandoned for one to
five years. Nearly 130 searches were conducted, resulting in seven matches for a
total of more than $1,500 found for consumers.
“We are
thrilled with the continued success of ‘Secure Your ID’ Day,” said Beverly
Baskin, president and CEO of Better Business Bureau serving Eastern North
Carolina. “Finding monies owed to seven consumers made the event especially
successful.”
BBB hosts its “Secure Your ID” Day events in the spring and fall each
year. The next event will be held on Saturday, October 23, 2010. For more event
information, visit www.easternnc.bbb.org/secure-your-id.
