Hundreds of Wisconsinites rid of personal documents during ‘Shredfest’

COTTAGE GROVE, Wis. (WMTV) - Wisconsin residents took steps toward protecting themselves against identity theft Saturday during ‘Shredfest.’

The Better Business Bureau hosted the event in partnership with Summit Credit Union. The free document shredding event is held each year to encourage the community to get rid of personal documents. According to the BBB, those documents can be easily used by fraudsters to steal an identity.

“Once they have a piece of your personal information, they can actually match it up with other information that they’ve actually phished for, maybe they purchased it off the dark web, and they can open accounts in your name and effectively become you,” Regional Director Tiffany Schultz said.

According to Schultz, over 650,000 reports of identity theft were made to the Federal Trade Commission in 2020.

“They can open credit cards in your names, file taxes in your name, and before you know it the damage has been done and it’s really hard to get out from underneath,” Schultz said.

If you missed this year’s event you can find other free shredding events in the area or take your documents to a big box store, according to the BBB.

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