# Am I in danger of Identity Theft?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-in-danger-of-identity-theft/287210>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 29, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-in-danger-of-identity-theft/287210 "2005-01-29T00:10:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-in-danger-of-identity-theft/287210/1 "2005-01-29T00:10:05Z")

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I photocopied a credit -card statement yesterday in the office, and left the original on my desk overnight. When I got in this morning, it wasn’t here. (We’ve had some problems with the cleaning staff over the last few years. You never want to leave money on your desk, but I didn;t consider my credit-card statement as money.) Anyway, I called up the credit card people to ask if I need to cancel my card, and was told that someone would need more information than appears on my monthly bill to run up charges, and I should monitor the account for a while on-line.

Afterwards, I remembered, however, that I’m always being cautioned to shred any stuff that has such info before throwing it out, and this was obviously swiped by someone intentionally, so maybe I should be concerned. Even if there’s no way for charges to be run up on the card (and I’m not convinced there is no way) what do you think I should do, other than keep checking the account action on-line.

Finally, why doesn’t the credit card company WANT me to cancel the account and apply for a new one? I would have thought that, since THEY’ll be on the hook if someone runs up a lot of charges (and i’m capped at 50 bucks, I think) THEY’D be eager to do what I was asking about, not me.

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**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-in-danger-of-identity-theft/287210/2 "2005-01-29T05:13:15Z")

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It wouldn’t hurt to cancel the card, in fact given your cleaning crew’s tendency, it would be well advised IMO. You can always get it replaced within a few days anyway.