Michael Vecchiarelly the Public Relations person for these public events, said that "the statistics on identy theft are staggering. Each year millions of people have their credit affected due to fraud, and the principal way people have their identies stolen is through their faulty computer security practices."
In some cases brazen criminals will rifle through your home trash looking for Social security numbers, maiden names, and accounts you may have. For this reason the Frank campaign has organized an onsite shredding service and Computer Recycling program aimed at destroying data. Frank is also available to teach local corporations what documents a criminal would be interested in and how to shred or dispose of those documents in a secure way.
Rocco J. Frank Jr. is a security expert and former law enforcement agent he has also stated that there has been a recent influx of computer repair businesses in the market in the last few years. This rise has been due to the vast riches that were attained in the late 90's and many people from all areas of troubled countries like Nigeria have entered the Identity Theft arena in the hope of big profits. Even locally some unreputable computer repair people have turned to crime and are under investigation for criminal offenses including the former manager of the Norwalk Gateway Country store, who is serving time in prison on Federal Charges, stemming from thefts at Sikorski.
Consumers are encouraged to work with reputable computer companies who have demonstrated a solid role within their community and are well referenced. Frank stages each event for the purpose of achieving greater awarness of todays computer challenges and aims to win the trust of many locals who are afraid their data could fall into the wrong hands.
This is increasingly important because According to the state Department of Environmental Protection's Web site at www.ct.gov/dep/ a recent study estimates that Americans discard 12 to 14 million computer systems each year. Careful disposal of electronic devises is important because some contain "hazardous components that can include leaded glass from computer monitors and televisions. Materials such as beryllium, mercury, cadmium, nickel, zinc, silver and gold can be found in printed circuit boards. Other substances such as cadmium may be contained in batteries and mercury may also be present in relays and switches," writes the DEP.
Things on the identity theft front are about to get more interesting because Gov. Rell recently announced that she has signed into law a bill that calls for mandatory recycling of certain major electronic appliances.
The Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority, also known as RESCO in Bridgeport has began recycling computers in 1999, and its Web site (www.crra.org) claims the CRRA has collected more than 2.6 million pounds of unwanted, obsolete electronics equipment. These include personal computers. Computers that may contain information that an identity thief could use to steal your identity. Anyone concerned about data should contact Frank at the Computerfox at (203) 647-0380 for a secure erase data destruction.
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