The Twin Falls Police Department is urging people to protect themselves by shredding any document containing personal information.
Erin Davey with the department spoke at today's retirement seminar about shredding and destroying papers.
She says instead of just throwing papers out, people should shred anything that has a name, address, or any sort of information on it, including credit card offers.
Davey says, “It can really happen. I went to a class where a guy had taken a credit card offer he received in the mail and tore it up into small pieces, taped it back together, filled it out and sent it in, and he got a credit card.”
Davey says that many times people don't realize they've become a victim of identity theft until a year or more afterwards during a credit report check.