Rochester's Consumer Credit Counseling employees are making sure people are taking extra steps to protect their identities.
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The service held a shredding and electronic recycling event Saturday as their way of spreading awareness as part of the nationwide Secure Your Identity Day.
"A lot of people don't know, they might be a victim of identity theft and they don't know it," said Todd McQuillen, Consumer Credit Counselor.
It's a crime that had nearly 12 million victims last year.
"There's too many people out there stealing identities and I just don't want my identity stolen," said Jeff Demaison of Rochester.
Which is why identity theft is something Jeff Demaison takes seriously.
"I just can't have my stuff getting out there. I see it all the time," Demaison said.
Demaison is one of many who took advantage of this Secure Your Identity Day event in Greece.
"We're doing our part today on this nice sunny day to make sure that people's documents are shredded and to make sure all the electronics and secure information are destroyed properly," said McQuillen.
Information that was shredded in bulk.
Others got rid of things like computer hard drives and smart phones, guaranteed to be wiped off and recycled.
"You think about like when you think about online banking, your information can still be in there if you just throw it out in the garbage, someone can take that and they can take and they can see your log in ID right there," said McQuillen.
It's not just Secure Your ID Day, but Protect Your Identity Week. Organizers say as the holiday shopping approaches they want to use this event to bring awareness to the risks of identity theft.
"We recommend that everybody checks their credit report two times a year to make sure there's nothing suspicious going on," said McQuillen.
Consumer credit counselors say it's an easy precaution to take for a crime that can be hard to recover from.