Is Your Community a Target for Dumpster-Diving?

Just when you think you’ve heard the latest in identity theft, along comes a new and innovative way to rob you of your personal information and compromise your identity. It’s happening in condo and townhouse developments primarily, but it could also occur in a neighborhood of single-family homes.

There are a couple ways the theft happens.

• •  Most condo and townhouse developments contract with waste management companies to collect their residents’ garbage a couple times a week. If you live in one of these complexes, you probably pay little or no attention to the name of the company that your development uses. In fact, you may never even see the truck because most scheduled garbage pickups in residential developments happen during the day, when the majority of its residents are at work. This makes it easy for some so-called waste management companies to rummage through the garbage, looking for information they believe will benefit them and compromise you and countless others.
• •  Someone who appears to be a resident of your complex looks like he is dumping garbage in a Dumpster there.  However, this person is actually an identity thief and so he is much more interested in taking garbage out of the Dumpster than putting garbage in. Again, this brand of identity theft usually happens during the day when few people will be at home.

Is there a way to prevent this brand of identity theft? Although you probably cannot eliminate it entirely, there are actions you can take to minimize its occurrence.

• 1.  First, your homeowners’ association should establish a neighborhood watch group to monitor who is coming and going from your complex at all times and to ensure that only duly-authorized individuals can gain access to the property.
• 2.  Second, it your complex does not have closed gates and other security measures, like video cameras for example, explore the possibility of adding them.
• 3.  Finally, buy a shredder and use it! Tearing bills and documents into halves or quarters is not sufficient. Any diligent identity thief can piece together information that is not shredded.

Philip Cioppa is managing principal and chief investment officer of Arbol Financial Strategies, LLC. He specializes in asset management strategies, insurance planning and taxation issues for the firm, and he “Finances With Phil,” a radio show that airs weekly on WGCH-Radio in Greenwich, Conn.