Fear of ID theft by hackers and phishers could be blinding people to a low-tech and far easier way for criminals to get at personal details – the wastepaper basket.

More then 21 million households are at risk from so-called bin raiders, according to research findings by Fellowes, commissioned to support National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, which starts today.

It concludes that more people than ever are putting themselves at risk because of the sensitive material they dump.

The problem affects a staggering 97 per cent of households, representing over 21 million UK homes, which regularly dump materials stating full names, sex, titles, addresses and postcodes.

Around 30 per cent had thrown away whole credit/debit card numbers while nearly half threw away an item that contained their bank account number and sort code. A further 73 per cent discarded documents with their name exactly as it appears on a credit or debit card and almost half dumped enough juicy material to allow a fraudster to steal their identity.

Despite awareness campaigns, the figures are up over 20 per cent on last year.
“People spend thousands of pounds protecting their homes against burglary – from top-of-the-range locks to lighting systems and alarms,” commented Tyron Hill, marketing director, Fellowes and National Identity Fraud Prevention Week spokesperson.

“However, this research shows that virtually everyone in the country is literally handing over their identity to bin raiders. Your identity is the most important thing you have and people have got to stop being so complacent and must start to put up a fight against identity fraud. People need to be more vigilant – they need to check their mail, monitor their credit reports and most importantly, they need to shred.”

A new website has been set up to offer advice.