February 27, 2025 • 4 mins
Your old documents, your old computers, your old phones, and even your old gaming consoles could leave you vulnerable to identity theft. Hillsborough County is giving residents the chance to destroy that information Saturday morning. Listen to Consumer and Veterans Services director Eric Olsen to find out more about Shred Fest.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird Beyond the News. You might be at risk
for identity theft and other financial crimes from information in
your old documents, or old phones or old computers. If
you live in Hillsborough County, you could help avoid some
of that risk by taking part in Shredfest, which is
happening Saturday, March first, from nine to eleven am at
(00:20):
Veterans Memorial Park, off three oh one. Eric Olsen from
Hillsborough County Consumer and Veterans Services is here to talk
about it. Eric Olson, thank you very much for joining
us on Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well. First, why is it important to shred your old
papers and phones and devices?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
These documents and devices have personal information on them. More
and more we are finding that we are going more digital,
less and less. The paper documents are out there with
the personal information, but we still have them. They have
our social security numbers, our information data, birth location, our names,
(00:58):
are account numbers. All of that information, if it's used together,
can be used to commit identity theft by thieves that
are out there who want to do that. So it's
important to manage that information and destroy it securely.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And of course the rules are different for different types
of documents. Tax documents are one thing, but what are
some examples of documents that we should be shredding.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Tax records are one of the biggest. They usually have
that information, but you do have documents, bank statements, records
that might have information that's personal to you, like pay
stubs or insurance documentation. Anything that has name data, birth,
social security number, account numbers, things like that that can
(01:45):
personally identify you can be used against you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And that would include things I assume that come in
the mail that are junk mail, but they have your
name and other information out there making you some kind
of offer. That would be a good example of something
you shred.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Some of that can be yeah, a junk mail. When
when you're on a list, a marketing list, your your
name and your address is there. That's that's important to
throw away and and and destroy. But it's really the
information that has your name data, birth, social security numbers certainly,
and any personal account numbers that might point to financial
(02:23):
or other other important accounts.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
When we talk about phones and devices, of course it's
not literally literally running them through a shredder, But but
what is it that e shredding does to them to
protect you.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Many times, it actually can be physically destroyed like that,
and it it is the shredding. When we're talking about
e shredding, you're you're destroying securely destroying the device, whether
it's a cell phone, a computer, hard drive, it's the
it's the location where that information is stored. And more
(02:56):
and more we're starting to see this type of information
stored on other device besides computers and cell phones, but
those are the big ones. If it's a hard drive,
a printer, even circuit boards, game consoles can have this information.
They can have your credit card information inside those devices,
and if that's not removed before it's given away or
(03:18):
thrown away, then that information can be retrieved by thieves
to commit identity theft.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Maybe a thumb drive as well. So let's get the location, time, date,
and where people can go online for more info and
just emphasize this is an event for individual homeowners, residents, consumers,
not a business event.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Right, so it's not for commercial shredding purposes. These are
individuals who are here in Hillsborough County who want to
come to the location. It's at the Veterans Memorial Park.
It's on three oh one south of Doctor Mlka Junior Drive.
It's at thirty six oh two US Highway three to
Oho one North in Tampa. It is Saturday, March first.
(03:59):
We are doing this event from nine to eleven, and
as long as there's like three bags or boxes, we
have to kind of limit it a little bit. And
we want to make sure that we get this free
paper shredding for people. We want to make sure that
there's no trash, no batteries, no anything other than paper
(04:20):
in the paper pile. And any of the devices like
cell phones, desktop computers, laptops, circuit boards like I mentioned,
or game consoles that kind of thing can come to
the EA shredding as well.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
All right, good to know and hopefully people will be
able to take advantage of it. Eric Olsen from Hillsborough
County Consumer and Veterans Services talking about Shredfest coming up
on March first. Eric Olsen, thank you very much for
joining us on Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Pleasure to be here and I hope to see you
all out here on March first.
Gordon Bird Beyond the News. You might be at risk
for identity theft and other financial crimes from information in
your old documents, or old phones or old computers. If
you live in Hillsborough County, you could help avoid some
of that risk by taking part in Shredfest, which is
happening Saturday, March first, from nine to eleven am at
(00:20):
Veterans Memorial Park, off three oh one. Eric Olsen from
Hillsborough County Consumer and Veterans Services is here to talk
about it. Eric Olson, thank you very much for joining
us on Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well. First, why is it important to shred your old
papers and phones and devices?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
These documents and devices have personal information on them. More
and more we are finding that we are going more digital,
less and less. The paper documents are out there with
the personal information, but we still have them. They have
our social security numbers, our information data, birth location, our names,
(00:58):
are account numbers. All of that information, if it's used together,
can be used to commit identity theft by thieves that
are out there who want to do that. So it's
important to manage that information and destroy it securely.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And of course the rules are different for different types
of documents. Tax documents are one thing, but what are
some examples of documents that we should be shredding.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Tax records are one of the biggest. They usually have
that information, but you do have documents, bank statements, records
that might have information that's personal to you, like pay
stubs or insurance documentation. Anything that has name data, birth,
social security number, account numbers, things like that that can
(01:45):
personally identify you can be used against you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And that would include things I assume that come in
the mail that are junk mail, but they have your
name and other information out there making you some kind
of offer. That would be a good example of something
you shred.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Some of that can be yeah, a junk mail. When
when you're on a list, a marketing list, your your
name and your address is there. That's that's important to
throw away and and and destroy. But it's really the
information that has your name data, birth, social security numbers certainly,
and any personal account numbers that might point to financial
(02:23):
or other other important accounts.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
When we talk about phones and devices, of course it's
not literally literally running them through a shredder, But but
what is it that e shredding does to them to
protect you.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Many times, it actually can be physically destroyed like that,
and it it is the shredding. When we're talking about
e shredding, you're you're destroying securely destroying the device, whether
it's a cell phone, a computer, hard drive, it's the
it's the location where that information is stored. And more
(02:56):
and more we're starting to see this type of information
stored on other device besides computers and cell phones, but
those are the big ones. If it's a hard drive,
a printer, even circuit boards, game consoles can have this information.
They can have your credit card information inside those devices,
and if that's not removed before it's given away or
(03:18):
thrown away, then that information can be retrieved by thieves
to commit identity theft.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Maybe a thumb drive as well. So let's get the location, time, date,
and where people can go online for more info and
just emphasize this is an event for individual homeowners, residents, consumers,
not a business event.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Right, so it's not for commercial shredding purposes. These are
individuals who are here in Hillsborough County who want to
come to the location. It's at the Veterans Memorial Park.
It's on three oh one south of Doctor Mlka Junior Drive.
It's at thirty six oh two US Highway three to
Oho one North in Tampa. It is Saturday, March first.
(03:59):
We are doing this event from nine to eleven, and
as long as there's like three bags or boxes, we
have to kind of limit it a little bit. And
we want to make sure that we get this free
paper shredding for people. We want to make sure that
there's no trash, no batteries, no anything other than paper
(04:20):
in the paper pile. And any of the devices like
cell phones, desktop computers, laptops, circuit boards like I mentioned,
or game consoles that kind of thing can come to
the EA shredding as well.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
All right, good to know and hopefully people will be
able to take advantage of it. Eric Olsen from Hillsborough
County Consumer and Veterans Services talking about Shredfest coming up
on March first. Eric Olsen, thank you very much for
joining us on Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Pleasure to be here and I hope to see you
all out here on March first.
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