How shredding paper prevents fraud

Whilst we move towards a more electronic existence, there are still several sectors that rely on paper copies of documents in day to day business.

These sectors include the legal and financial sectors, along with companies such as estate agents. In some cases, paper copies of documents need to be kept for at least 5 years before the originals can be destroyed. A clear system is needed to protect data, and incorporating shredding is just one of the ways you can do so.

Here are some of the ways shredding prevent fraud:

Create a policy for shredding paper

You may think it’s just the larger corporations or governmental organisations that require a policy for shredding paper. In reality, even the smallest of businesses need a policy for destroying paper records, notes and customer or personal information. Receipts, notes containing telephone numbers or customer names and notepads all need to be shredded to protect your customers and prevent the details possibly being used fraudulently.
It’s important that all staff are aware of the importance of shredding paper in relation to fraud prevention. It doesn’t have to mean a complicated way of working. In most cases, a common-sense approach is all that is needed. As a general rule, if unsure, add the piece of paper to the shredding sack.

Practical Examples

All businesses are different. Think of real word examples of how paper documents could get into the wrong hands, and write your policy based on this information. For example, if employees regularly take documents on the train or in a taxi – could these documents be misplaced or stolen? Think of different ways to prevent this happening.

Shredding Paper for GDPR

To comply with GDPR, all businesses must have a clear plan in place about the collection, maintenance and retention of customer records. Good record keeping is essential for this. Organising records into easily obtainable places is imperative to adhere to the regulations.
Make sure you can easily locate a document. Anyone has the right to have their personal data deleted. If you’re unable to locate their information, or where a copy of it is stored, this is seen as a breach. Human error is one of the main causes of a data breach, so taking easy steps to minimise the chance of this occurring is good business practice.

Top Tips:

Organise both electronic and paper records. Create a system to ensure all mediums can be easily located if required. This applies to archived records too.

Maintain regularly

Ensure you regularly go through filing cabinets to dispose of anything that is no longer relevant or that can be scanned in and saved on a secure server.

Shred your old records

All old paper records must be shredded to protect your business. That’s where a professional company that deal with shredding paper comes in. Whether you have just a shredding sack full of old papers, or several cabinets worth, an on-site shredding service using a mobile truck chews through tons of paper in minutes, making short work of what could be a headache for you.

Go digital

Scan documents and add to an external electronic database or cloud storage for extra security.

If you would like help shredding paper, please give The Shredding Alliance a call for a quote.