A survey of UK households reveals that 97% of homes regularly throw out documents that could be used by identity fraudsters.

Most homes regularly just throw documents with personal information in the trash instead of destroying them, and 48% throw out enough details intact for a fraudster to be able to steal their identity.

Along with the threat of online fraud caused by giving out personal details to spam e-mails and fake web sites, the lack of care when disposing of paper documents is also making people vulnerable to identity fraud and credit problems.

People should be careful to shred or destroy any piece of paper that has personal details such as name, address and job title, rather than just putting it in the trash intact.

The survey is part of National Identity Fraud Protection Week 2006 which has a dedicated web site:

www.stop-idfraud.co.uk

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