Norfolk Host Document Shredding Event

From Norfolk District Attorney: Some financial statements and private papers hold enough information for a knowledgeable thief to assume your identity and begin stealing your money. Financial institutions and consumer watchdog agencies urge citizens to destroy those documents rather than put them in their recycling or trash bin.

Because not everyone has a shredder at home, Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey is sponsoring secure document shredding events at Senior Centers across Norfolk County this spring to help dispose of those piles quickly, safely and for free.

The Braintree Council on Aging will host the next event on June 14 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the COA’s 71 Cleveland Avenue location. A private shredding company will be on site with District Attorney Morrissey and members of his staff, who will also give a brief talk on avoiding identity theft at the start of the event.

“We want people who have financial documents accumulated on their counters or cluttering things up to bring them down to the senior center. We will make sure they are securely destroyed,” District Attorney Morrissey said. “Identity theft can be among the more challenging cases to investigate and prosecute. Information thieves can sell or pass data to actors in other states or other continents. They then begin buying things with your money or your credit.”

There were more than 17 million victims of identity theft nationally in 2014, the last year for which the federal government has posted statistics, according to the DA’s Office.“We know that seniors, who did not come up in the age of computers, can be specifically targeted. This is a simple step to help citizens prevent crimes before they happen,” District Attorney Morrissey said. “Shredding is the twenty-first century equivalent of locking your car doors at night.”

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