BBB Event Offers Free Identity Theft Protection Guidelines and On-Site Document Shredding
BBB invites community to take part in a coast-to-coast
“Secure Your ID” Day
Contact:
Sue McConnell
VP., PR & Marketing
sue@cleveland.bbb.org
216.623.8964 x 109
For Immediate Release – September 11, 2008 - Better Business Bureau (BBB) and its national partners Equifax, Incorporated www.equifax.com, the National Association of Information Destruction www.naidonline.org and ProQuo www.proquo.com invite Greater Clevelanders to BBB “Secure Your ID” Day Saturday, September 20, 2008 at RadAir Complete Car Care Center in Westlake. Residents and small businesses are encouraged to attend the event and take a key step in identity protection by shredding and properly disposing of their sensitive documents. BBB staff will be on-site to provide expert advice and tips for identity theft protection.
“Shredding sensitive paper documents is an important step, but it doesn’t end there,” said David Weiss, BBB president. “That’s why BBB experts will also be distributing important advice and simple steps everyone can take to prevent ID theft in their daily lives, both online and off.”
Last year alone, 8.1 million Americans became victims of ID theft, resulting in the loss of $45 billion, according to a 2008 report from Javelin Strategy and Research. The report notes that the majority (56 percent) of ID theft occurs when the thief has direct contact with the victim’s personal information, through a stolen or lost wallet, rifling through a personal mailbox or trashcan, or even lifting documents from inside a home or business.
“This is largely a crime of access,” added Weiss. “Our goal here is to make the information less accessible and empower people to be their own first line of defense against identity theft. With community-based BBBs across North America collaborating simultaneously, we’ll have a tremendous coast-to-coast presence that will reach a lot of people and, hopefully, prevent a lot of theft.”
The first BBB “Secure Your ID” Day event earlier this year, yielded the largest single-day consumer turnout of this kind in national history – and this next event promises to be even larger.
BBB Secure Your ID Day Details
Who: Better Business Bureau Serving Greater Cleveland with national partners Equifax and the National Association for Information Destruction, ProQuo and local partners NewsChannel 5, RadAir Complete Car Care Centers, and All Ohio Secure Shred
What: Free on-the-spot document shredding and tips and resources for protecting your identity. Plus, free donuts donated by Krispy Kreme.
When: Saturday, September 20, 2008, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Where: RadAir Complete Car Care Center, 27051 Detroit Road (near Dover Center Rd.), Westlake.
Bring up to three boxes or bags of documents to be shredded and take home the tips and resources you need to help protect yourself. Documents to be shredded should be removed from binders.
About BBB
BBB is an unbiased non-profit organization that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. Businesses that earn BBB accreditation contractually agree and adhere to the organization’s high standards of ethical business behavior. BBB provides objective advice, free business BBB Reliability ReportsTM and charity BBB Wise Giving ReportsTM, and educational information on topics affecting marketplace trust. To
further promote trust, BBB also offers complaint and dispute resolution support for consumers and businesses when there is difference in viewpoints. The first BBB was founded in 1912. Today, 125 BBBs serve communities across the U.S. and Canada, evaluating and monitoring more than 3 million local and national businesses and charities. Please visit www.bbb.org for more information about BBB.
About Equifax
Equifax empowers businesses and consumers with information they can trust. A global leader in information solutions, we leverage one of the largest sources of consumer and commercial data, along with advanced analytics and proprietary technology, to create customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.
Customers have trusted Equifax for over 100 years to deliver innovative solutions with the highest integrity and reliability. Businesses – large and small – rely on us for consumer and business credit intelligence, portfolio management, fraud detection, decisioning technology, marketing tools, and much more. We empower individual consumers to manage their personal credit information, protect their identity, and maximize their financial well-being.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax Inc. employs approximately 7,000 people in 14 countries through North America, Latin America and Europe. Equifax is a member of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500® Index. Our common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EFX. www.equifax.com
About NAIDâ
The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) is the nonprofit trade organization of the secure destruction industry. With over 1,200 member locations, NAID members provide secure destruction services to business and government across North America.
www.naidonline.org.
About ProQuo
ProQuo was founded to put consumers in control of their personal information, letting them decide if and how businesses use it. ProQuo helps consumers stop the junk mail they don’t want and get the offers they really do want. The company is led by pioneers in the online security and privacy arena and has served hundreds of thousands of consumers since launching in October 2007. www.proquo.com