Contact:  Jerad Albracht, Communications Specialist, 608-224-5007 or Jim Dick, Communications Director, 608-224-5020

• Consumers and small businesses are invited to shred up to ten boxes or 200 pounds of sensitive documents at the event.  The shredded material will be recycled.
• The shredding and recycling services are free, but staff at the event will also collect donations of food and money for the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin.
• Remember that any combination of the following details can provide enough information for identify theft to occur: name, address, phone number, email address, Social Security Number, mother’s maiden name, ATM pin or date of birth.  Any unnecessary documents containing this information should be shredded.
• Sandy Chalmers, Division Administrator of Trade and Consumer Protection:  “Identity theft affects nearly 10 million Americans each year, often because their personal information is stolen from unsecured documents.  Shredding personal documents is the first step in protecting your identity or your customers’ identities from theft.”

Contact:

For more information on this event or on identity theft, call the Consumer Protection hotline at 1-800-422-7128.

###