ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions, in conjunction with local partners, is inviting consumers and small business owners to a Secure Your ID Day event as part of National Protect Your Identity Week.
The event will include free on-the-spot document shredding, cellphone and computer/electronic recycling and take-home prevention resources and tips on how to recover from identity theft.
The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 22, at two locations—Arsenal Credit Union at 8651 Watson Rd. in Webster Groves and the Fox Valley Center on Jeffco Boulevard in Arnold.
Protect Your Identity Week is sponsored by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), said Tracy Stone, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-approved housing counselor at the nonprofit ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions.
“It’s very important for everybody to be aware of where their information is,” Stone said.
Stone said agencies, such as ClearPoint, are seeing more and more clients who experience credit difficulties as a result of ID theft. For the 11th year in a row, ID theft was also the subject most frequently complained about by consumers to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Stone said.
The FTC reports that it received 250,854 complaints about identity theft during 2010—nearly one-fifth of the entire number of complaints received by the agency.
Participating partners in the Secure Your ID Day event include: Cintas Document Management, 911CellPhoneBank.org, RNA Worldwide, AllClear ID, Arsenal Credit Union and the Arnold and Webster Groves police departments.
Consumers may bring up to three boxes or bags of documents to be shredded. Items should be removed from binders and staple-free. Cellphones will be accepted for recycling with a 100 percent guarantee to strip all information contained on the phone, Stone said.
Computer and electronic recycling services will also be offered with a certificate of destruction provided, Stone said.
Child fingerprinting and information on financial scams will also be offered by local law enforcement.
