spacer

February 29, 2012

Red Flags Rule Proposed

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have proposed new “red flag” rules to help prevent identity theft. The new rules would require financial institutions to implement two things. The first part is to create a written identity prevention program. The program should be designed to “detect, prevent, and mitigate identity theft.” The second part of the rule establishes requirements for credit card issuers to validated changes of address.

You may have thought that the red flag rule was in effect after all the haggling from professionals when the Federal Trade Commision (FTC) tried to enact a similar rule for all creditors. In the end professionals were excempted from the law with passage of Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010.

The original red flag rule was proposed in 2007 as part of the Fair and accurate credit transaction act (FACTA). At the time the FTC was responsible for enforcement. The change came with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This act moved FACTA enforcement of certain credit agencies to the SEC and the CFTC.

 The rule would apply to commission merchants, foreign exchange dealers, commodity trading advisers, commodity pool operators, introducing brokers, swap dealers,  major swap participants, brokers, dealers, investment companies and investment advisers.

The rule has just be proposed and they are accepting public comment. I hope this goes more smoothly than the 2+ years of delays that the FTC had when they enacted their version of the red flag rule.

Filed under: FACTA,Red Flag Rule — admin @ 2:06 pm

February 23, 2012

Danger of Shredder Fires

There have been a rash of news reports about shredding trucks and shredding plants having fires. Over the weekend it was a truck at a community shredding event. Today it was at a shredding plant in Lawrenceville. The increased reports may lead you to believe that something is going on.

After 30 years in the shredding business we learned a few things about the risk of fire and shredding. We did have fires in shredding trucks but never at our plant. Unless you are a fireman you don’t want to have enough experience to be a true expert in fires.

The first thing to consider is the equipment itself. Any piece of equipment can overheat. The same threat is true of the shredders they sell at the office supply store. If ran continously for too long they pose a fire risk. Different types of shredders run faster and get hotter.  This is a reason that “cross cut” shredders to not scale to industial sizes. More common are “shear shredders” in an industrial setting.

There are still threats that can lead to a fire. The most basic is what is going through the shredder. Large pieces of metal can cause sparks or if large enough jam up the shredder. For industrial equipment that is likely to be metal larger than three ring binders. We have no problem with something as small as paper clips or staples. One time we had significant repair costs from a a stapler, yes, the whole stapler. To this day it doesn’t seem to make sense why someone would put an entire stapler into a shredding bin.

The last risk is from the dust. Shredding paper does produce a lot of dust. If not managed a spark can cause the fire. Most shredding plants use a dust control system to reduce the risk of fire and also make the plant better for people working there.

So in the end there will always be a risk of fire when operating shredding equipment. But a good operator will train employees and set up systems to mitigate the threat. The good news is that in the end the documents were supposed to be destroyed and the fire only finishes off the job.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — admin @ 5:38 pm

February 21, 2012

Tax Preparer Needs a Shredder

Mo’ Money Taxes in Memphis, Tennessee got some unwelcome PR this week. The business was found with a dumpster full of their clients past tax returns. The timeline seems to be that the company was closing down the location. The owner says they tried to get a shredder but they were booked for the week. Then the lease ended and the land lord just threw the papers into the trash.

There were serveral mistakes made that led to the problem. The first is that the tax service should have made a second call. There are several Memphis Shredding Services. If one was booked then it is time to call the next. Any good business person is going to want at least three quotes to make sure you are getting the right service and the right price.

The second mistake was by the land lord. It must have been obvious that a tax service would have sensitive information. They could have a hired the shredding service and taken the fees out of the deposit. I don’t think he should be absolved of any wrongdoing.  When they took control of the office then they took control of the files.

 

Filed under: dumpster diving,FACTA — Tags: , , — admin @ 10:24 am

February 13, 2012

Denver Shredding is Needed

After the million dollar fine that Rite Aid paid and the 2.25 million dollar fine CVS paid for failing to shred patient documents I thought I had seen the last pharmacy make that mistake.  The fines that HIPAA imposes make a mistake with patient records very costly. But Cornell Pharmacy in Denver has been caught with a dumpster full of patient records. The reporter estimated that around 5,000 patients were affected.

After being caught the pharmacy said it wasn’t their fault because a lock had been cut off the dumpster. But there story seems to ring a little hollow. The dumpster was from a waste company so it would have ended up in a landfill and not shredded. Also, the waste company said there locks were never intended to keep anything secure — just keep people from adding in their trash.

For all the other pharmacies that don’t have a million dollars to spend on HIPAA fines here are some good Denver Shredding Companies.

 

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 6:32 pm

February 9, 2012

Shredding in Indianapolis

Cardinal Fitness of Indianapolis is the latest star of “What is in the Dumpster.” It appears they closed their location and left all of their customers’ financial information in the dumpster. According to neighbors the dumpster has been out since December with at least daily visits by the curious. The problem was reported to WTHR. They have since boxed up the files and taken them to the Indiana Attorney General’s office.

The best part of the story is the quote by Chuck Taylor, section chief of the Attorney General’s Identity Theft Unit. He says the problem could be avoided with a “$25 shredder“. It is obvious that Mr. Taylor has never used a $25 shredder. A shredder that size would handle a couple sheets at a time and would overheat if used for an extended period of time. In the end you would have to hire someone to sit and shred for weeks. I am guessing the Attorney General supports paying at least minimum wage and the associated taxes. The total for the job could run into thousands of dollars. This is the classic “penny wise, pound foolish.”

If you are looking to save money on Indianapolis Shredding there are several great options. Unless you pay triple the invoice then you will save money. And the added benefit is all the shreds are recycled by the service.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 10:30 am

February 8, 2012

Do You Need Some Shreading?

Everyday we work with hundreds of people who need shredding. It is everything from homes with a few boxes of old bank statements and mail to large multinationals that need weekly shredding across the country. The one thing that requests of all sizes have is the need for shreading. Yes, I wrote shreading. For some reason this is the preferred spelling for many people. It far outstrips the less popular shreadding and schreding.

After a decade of trying to find out who wants to change the dictionary we are stumped. The spelling seems to cross gener, age, location, and education. So to all the people out there who need shreading we are here to help. And the best part is no matter how you spell it the evidence will be destroyed along with everything else after it goes through our shreader.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — admin @ 2:00 pm

February 1, 2012

Fun Things to Shred

While the most common request we have is for paper shredding, that is not the only thing we can destroy. With industrial shredders there is very little that can’t be shredded. Things are destroyed because they are defective or they may be counterfit. In the end everything that can be recycled is recycled.

One of the things that was most fun to shred were foosball tables. It started with a call from a sporting goods company. They had a very friendly return policy and got a bad batch of tables one Christmas.

Customers returned the bad tables for a refund or replacement. A local trash hauler said he could handle the proper disposal. The problem was he simply took them to the flea market and re-sold them. When they didn’t work they were returned to the sporting goods store.

After doing an audit on what was being returned they discovered that the tables were being refunded multiple times. Trying to save money on the destruction ended up being very expensive. That is when we got the call.

We picked up several semi loads of the foosball tables. We took out the metal piping and ran them all through the shredder. The most intereting thing is that when the particle board hit the shredder it turned to dust. It was a good thing we had a dust collection system.

There are mayny reasons why organizations shred products. They can be defective and if they got out would pose a liability threat. A ski manufacturer in Denver had some defective skis. They threw them out in the dumpster only to have them taken. The theif got hurt on the skis and then filed a lawsuit for a defective product.

Another large shredder is the Department of Customs. Counterfit products come in by the container full and must be destroyed. This happens most often by ports but can be found anywhere in the country.

When you need to shred anything we can help. It might be shirts that were printed incorrectly or just ones you don’t want to end up on the black market.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 6:34 pm



Shredding Knowledge Base

  • You are currently browsing the archives for February, 2012.

Archives

  • Categories

  • (800) 747-3365 :: Contact :: Terms and Conditions :: Privacy Policy :: Site Map :: Copyright ©2013 DataGuard USA