Staff Report

Alpine Bank will attempt to break the world record for the most paper collected in 24 hours during its “Shredding a World Record” Community Shred Day Sept. 10.

The event will be at the following three Alpine Bank locations: 6838 E. State St., Rockford; 600 S. State St., Belvidere; and 5023 Rockrose Court, Roscoe.

The community is invited to attend the free event, which aims to fight identity theft and fraud.

The current world record for most paper collected in 24 hours, 31,979 pounds, was set Oct. 23, 2010, by Cintas, the Council of Better Business Bureaus, and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, in three different states — Irvine, Calif.; Southfield, Mich.; and Cherry Hill, N.J.

Attendees of the Alpine Bank “Shredding a World Record” Community Shred Day can drop off their documents at “shredding drive-throughs” and watch Paper Recovery or Iron Mountain shred them.

There is no limit to the amount of personal documents people can bring to the event.

The following materials can be shredded: clean paper of any color, file folders of any color, and papers containing staples, paper clips, rubber bands and/or small binders.

Materials that cannot be shredded include trash, cardboard, telephone books, hardcover books, hanging folders, three-ring binders, lever-arch binders, and any plastics, including computer disks, CDs, DVDs, VCR tapes, ID badges, X-rays and transparencies.

Identity theft continues to be a serious growing crime in the United States. As noted on the Federal Trade Commission’s website, nearly 9 million Americans are victims of some form of identity theft each year. Shredding personal documents and information is just one way to avoid becoming a victim. All of the shred collected at this event will be recycled by Paper Recovery and Iron Mountain.

For more about the event, contact Alpine Bank at (815) 398-6500 or visit www.bankalpine.com ^[1]. Alpine Bank’s Online Security Center at www.bankalpine.com/about/security/ ^[2] also offers tips to protect yourself against identity theft.

Identity theft: Facts and figures

1. Every 3.8 seconds, someone has his or her identity stolen.

2. Drug trafficking has officially been replaced by identity theft as the No. 1 crime.

3. 18 percent of victims claim their identities were being used fraudulently for four years before they found out about it.

4. An average of $56.6 billion is lost by businesses each year as a result of identity theft.

5. 47 percent of victims have a hard time receiving loans or credit after having their identities stolen.

6. 19 percent of victims are hit with higher interest rates because of the negative impact of identity theft on their credit reports.

7. 16 percent of victims get charged higher insurance premiums as a result of identity theft.

8. 70 percent of victims have to make repeated attempts to have inaccurate information removed from their credit reports.

9. 66 percent of identity theft victims have new accounts they don’t know about opened in their names.

10. 43 percent of victims claim to personally know the person who stole their identities.

11. Victims spend an average of 330 hours repairing their credit after having their identities stolen.

12. New York, California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington and Texas have the most cases of identity theft per capita.

13. 7.2 million households are affected by identity theft per year.

14. 10 million individuals become victims of identity theft per year.

15. Most thieves still rely on traditional (non-technological) methods of stealing people’s identities.

16. Only 15 percent of people find out they’ve been victimized by being proactive. The others find out by being denied credit, receiving a phone call from a debt collections agency, etc.

17. The emotional impact of being a victim of identity theft is parallel to those victimized by violent crime.

18. 49 percent of victims have no idea how their information was obtained by a thief.

19. People between the ages of 18 and 29 have the highest risk of being victimized.

Reference: http://www.identitytheft.com/article/20_quick_facts ^[3]

From the Sept. 7-13, 2011, issue