It is unlikely that you would imagine yourself leaving this information out on the front door step for anybody on the street to come across, and we all know that we need to shred our personal information before we put it into the litter, but there are more aggressive identity thieves out there who are determined to get their hands on your information.
Personal computers are the new hot target for the thieves after your personal information, and they're stopping at nothing to get hold of them. If you decide to get rid of your computer for any reason, make sure you wipe the hard drive of every single thing on it otherwise you risk making it easily available to thieves. Identity fraudsters are looking specifically for used personal computers so they can harvest the information still on the hard rive.
If they can't get hold of your computer information this way, they will use a more aggressive approach and simply break into your home and steal the computer from you. There are a rising amount of theft victims saying that little more than the home computer has been stolen.
If you have any saved bank statements, pin numbers (a surprising amount of us keep these codes in a word document!) photographs of you and your family, passwords to bank accounts online etc all of this is going to in a neat little package waiting for the thief. It is so important to remember to password protect these files, if you must have them on your computer.
If you are going to get rid of your computer, take it to a responsible location and remember to destroy the hard disk inside. This way the computer can be recycled and its parts used without being a risk to your identity being stolen.
For credit cards be sure to make sure you look into all of the different credit card deals available. 0% credit cards can really make the difference on the day you are caught out on a payment you can't ignore.
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