In an interview with the popular show A Current Affair, Rachel stated that she
feels “violated, offended, invaded, taken advantage of and abused”.
“I opened up my home and my heart to this vile person who indiscriminately
chose to destroy, potentially the rest of my life, I’ve got no idea how long the
ramifications will go on,” she claimed.
“I’m so trusting, I’m a trustworthy person, I wouldn’t take things from other
people and I didn’t expect anyone who would take anything from me.”
Rachel lives in the beautiful fully equipped Brisbane property and only rents it
out anytime she is on holidays or house-sitting for her family or friends, the
house was booked by an Airbnb user who did not have a profile picture on his
account. These days profile pictures are no longer a necessary requirement
when creating an Airbnb account. Nevertheless, that should have raised the
first red flag for her.
Airbnb has a pretty strict identification protocol in place and Rachel trusted it
as she never has had a negative experience before. Even more now during the
Covid-19 crisis, as hosts are lucky to even have one booking on their properties.
“Remember Airbnb’s meant to verify all Airbnb users with three forms of
Government ID so even though there was no photo, I had to assume he had
been verified by Airbnb and it wasn’t mandatory to have a photo anymore,”
Rachel told the reporter.
The scammer went even further to gain Rachel’s trust by texting her each of the
five-day booking without any shame or remorse. Professional scammers know
what they are doing and know exactly what to do so they do not seem
suspicious to victims.
“The next morning, I SMSed him, ‘how did you go, how did you sleep?’ And he
said, ‘everything’s great thank you’, and I’m thinking, sure everything’s great
(he’s) living in a home full of an owner’s possessions and got free reign of it all,”
she said.
That is when what it seems like a normal Airbnb booking started to turn into
her worst unimaginable nightmare, she came back home to discover that all the
the place had been turned upside down, ravaged, and all her valuables were not to
be found.
“I felt like I was in a dream, I felt this was happening to someone else, this
couldn’t be real,” she said.
Around $18,000 worth of items were lost, among them, there was an apnoea
machine, a 55” smart TV, and her old laptop. But that was only the beginning of
what might be the worst experience of her life, as the old laptop still contained
private information and its identification details, allowing the scammer to
impersonate her. After gaining access to her identity details he was able to
make many purchases including a $5000 car on eBay and even he dared to
order a new credit card, which was mailed to her seven days later.
Even after changing dozens of passwords since the incident, her mother’s share
portfolio was jeopardized and the thief could have gained access to further
valuable information.
“He is not an amateur, he knows exactly what he’s doing,” Rachel said of the
scammer.
“I believe he’s a sociopath, he has no conscience whatsoever, doesn’t give a
darn about how the victim will feel.”
After she reported the incident the Queensland Police Department has opened
an investigation and is on the trail of a possible suspect.
“They believe he is doing this from place to place, identity theft from one place,
using that to book the next place,” she said.
Airbnb has a Million Dollar Host Guarantee that may cover Rachel’s losses. But
for now, Rachel’s claim for compensation to Airbnb is still being processed and
under investigation.

To keep their company’s and their client’s sensitive data away from criminal hands, more businesses are opting to carry out regular paper shredding, Gold Coast and elsewhere. When you are dealing with any kind of confidential material, this is the best option for destruction and data protection. You can do it in one of three ways, off-site using a shredding company, on-site using a mobile shredding company or yourself in house, purchasing suitable paper shredding machines.

How much paper do you need to shred and how often?

When you are looking for the most responsible option to keep that data protected, shredding is it. It is far better than just chucking it away with regular garbage where it can be dug through and used for criminal purposes. Most companies opt to do some form of shredding as a way to protect themselves and the owners of that data. But some businesses do not generate a lot of paper, and certainly, if you are thinking of your home office, you likely do not have a lot of documents regularly. Personal shredding machines are great for this situation. There are also several types of larger machines suitable for the office. But larger quantities and a higher frequency of need means finding a great document shredding company is your best option.

Services for paper shredding, Gold Coast

The kind of services you require for your document destruction depends on how sensitive that data is. If you do not need to witness the process and it is okay that others working for a shredding company may handle some papers, you can have it collected and taken to their facility and shredded off-site. They send you a document confirming the destruction for your records. If your data needs absolute protection then you could have a service come to do on-site shredding. They bring a truck on which is a large shredder and dump their container you have on-site and store paper in, into the shredder as you or a member of staff observe it all. No-one gets access to the paperwork. The latter is the more expensive option.

Save time and money in the long run

While document shredding on-site is more expensive, having a service do it rather than having it done by your own staff, with machines you have to invest in, actually saves you time and money. You are not paying the wages of people spending time away from their usual work as they shred. You are not maintaining the machinery, paying for repairs, and having to replace machinery when it breaks down for good. You can still have it all shredded on-site by a shredding service. You can still witness that shredding.

Conclusion

Protecting the data you have collected from investors, customers, clients, employees, suppliers and so on is important. There are also now laws that make it your responsibility to destroy sensitive data properly. While buying document shredders is one option, it could be a lot easier and more cost-effective to invest in a reputable shredding service instead.

Protecting Sensitive Information

When you consider the following industries they all have one thing in common. Law, government, healthcare, financial sector, technology, legal, manufacturing, entertainment and banking all deal with very sensitive information throughout their operations. This data need to have secure storage and when it needs destroying it needs professional commercial paper shredding.

What data is sensitive and why?

The kind of data that is sensitive includes things like bank account statements, wage information, sales receipts, personnel records, credit card data, social security information, blueprints and innovative designs, business letters and such. This is information used to commit identity theft, steal company secrets and it can do a lot of damage. It can mean bad publicity and a hit to the business’s reputation, it can mean the loss of employees, the loss of customers, clients and investors, the possible loss of the business and even potential indictment. Paper shredding those sensitive documents can prevent that.

Keeping it secure

The issue of shredding information-sensitive documents is not just about how you carry that out. There is first the concern of how those documents are stored before the shredding takes place. If you are doing it in-house you need to have somewhere that is secure to store it and your shredding machine needs to also be somewhere secure. If you choose to go the route of commercial paper shredding with a professional service they supply businesses with storage containers that are secure. That saves your business from having to waste precious office space.

Document shredding

There is some flexibility when it comes to paper shredding. If you do not often have the need you might get a small office shredder and have an employee take care of it when it comes up. When there is more to shred it might make sense to use a service. You can still use a service even when your needs are low though, most places are happy to accept infrequent or even one-off jobs.

Document shredding services offer both on-site options and off-site. The first one is good for the most sensitive material when you need to see it happen at your location. It does cost more, but it is the most secure method. They send a shredder on a truck to your premises. Off-site is when they pick up and take it to their own site, or in smaller cases when you send it to them. More affordable but you are not there in person. It is worth mentioning a small number of services to allow representatives to visit to witness it, and some have surveillance cameras from which you can observe the process. All certified shredding services should offer certification when the destruction is carried out.

Other advantages to using a commercial paper shredding service

There are many reasons to use a service for shredding. They include;

Save money in having to buy your equipment and maintain it. Save money on wages paid to your employees doing the shredding too.

When your employees have freed up time from shredding they can hopefully be more productive and efficient.

Better for the environment as when dealing with small pieces but in bulk amounts paper shredding services are usually able to have their materials recycled.