Vava, even if you shred everything, that doesn't protect from ID theft. One of my credit cards was compromised recently and it had nothing to do with anything I had done. Someone just had hacked into some vendor's site that I had bought things from (never found out who). Also, about a year ago UCLA sent out a mass email to pretty much everyone saying how their database had been hacked and social security numbers as well as other personal information had been compromised. Since then, I have been keeping a very close eye on my credit just in case ... there's really not much one can do other than to just be very watchful of fishy stuff and even then, by the time one finds out it is probably too late.