BBB: Protect Against Fraud, Identity Theft at Shredding, E-Cycling Event
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WHEELING - The Better Business Bureau is encouraging the community to join the fight against identity theft and fraud by participating in the annual document shredding and e-cycling event this weekend.
The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at the St. Michael Angelus Center, 1225 National Road, in Wheeling.
Everyone is invited to bring documents to shred or old electronic devices to recycle, and participation is free.
"The purpose of the event certainly is to protect your ID," said Frank Cilona, president and CEO of the BBB’s Greater West Virginia and Canton regions. "It’s officially called Protect Your Identification Day. We call it Shred Day. But it allows individuals to get rid of documents, important papers that might have sensitive information on there like bank statements or legal documents, anything that would carry bank account numbers or Social Security numbers. It allows them to get these documents professionally destroyed via the shred trucks that we bring out to the event."
Many old electronic devices store sensitive or personal information, as well. This is why the BBB event encourages people to properly dispose of these devices at this weekend’s Protect Your Identification Day event.
"We also have electronics e-cycling," Cilona said. "They will take anything like laptops and monitors, televisions and game consoles - anything that you want to get rid of. They will take these items apart and then re-utilize some of the metal that is in those devices."
Electronics that are e-cycled are professionally dismantled, keeping harmful materials out of landfills, Cilona noted. Any information contained on hard drives is eliminated when the devices are destroyed.
The BBB has been holding this annual event in Wheeling for many years, and it is open to everyone in the Ohio Valley. There are no residency requirements like some other community recycling events may be.
"It’s free to the community," Cilona said. "It’s free to anyone in the area who wants to come. We have people come from Ohio, West Virginia ... anyone in the general area that wants to come over. It’s open to the public. It’s absolutely free."
Cilona said everyone from the everyday citizen to local businesses that want to get rid of documents or electronics can utilize these services.
"We open it up to everyone," he said. "Anybody who needs to have those documents destroyed, we invite them to come out."
Saturday’s annual event in Wheeling is part of a regional effort to crack down on identity theft. Other similar events take place throughout Ohio and West Virginia from the spring to the fall every year.
"We have 12 counties in Ohio that we service," Cilona said, noting that other events take place in Canton and Dover in Ohio and in Charleston and Huntington in West Virginia.
"I think it’s very important to protect your ID," Cilona said. "I think it’s important that those numbers - bank account numbers, Social Security numbers and any type of financial information like that - are protected. We hope that no one gets scammed in the future."
Events like this are one big way to keep sensitive information from ending up on the wrong hands, he said.
There is a $10 charge to recycle computer monitors or televisions, but otherwise, the event is free. For those wishing to make donations, however, money will be accepted to go toward the BBB’s regional scholarship fund.
"Each year, we do six winners throughout the 64 counties that we represent, and over the last 12 years, we’ve given over $100,000 in scholarships to graduating students in Ohio and West Virginia," Cilona explained. "So I think it goes to a great cause. If you are able to donate, we would love to accept it and put it toward those scholarship funds."
For more information about the BBB’s Protect Your Identification Day document shredding and e-cycling event Saturday at St. Michael Angelus Center in Wheeling, visit https://www.bbb.org/bbb/canton-regiongreater-wv/shred-day-events.