CREDIT-CARD CRIME FUELS MARKET FOR PAPER SHREDDERS.Byline: Heather Lalley Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Remember those whirring whir v. whirred, whir·ring, whirs v.intr. To move so as to produce a vibrating or buzzing sound. v.tr. To cause to make a vibratory sound. n. 1. boxes that turned sensitive documents in the Iran-Contra case into so much packing filler? Well, they're not just for government scandals anymore. With increasing reports of thieves pilfering pil·fer v. pil·fered, pil·fer·ing, pil·fers v.tr. To steal (a small amount or item). See Synonyms at steal. v.intr. To steal or filch. sensitive financial information from trash bins across the country, a growing number of Americans are flocking to stores to shell out from $50 to $300 for household paper shredders Paper shredders are used to cut paper into very fine strips or tiny paper chips. Government organizations, businesses, and private individuals use shredders to destroy private, confidential, or sensitive documents. . As a result, many of the nation's largest manufacturers have reported tremendous jumps in shredder sales this year. Fellowes Manufacturing Co. of Itasca, Ill., which has been in the shredder business 15 years, has seen sales climb more than 50 percent. Northbrook, Ill.-based GBC GBC Game Boy Color GBC Global Business Coalition GBC Green Building Council GBC George Brown College GBC Great Basin College (Nevada) GBC General Binding Corporation GBC Greater Baltimore Committee GBC Goldey-Beacom College has had a 70 percent increase in shredder sales. ``We've never seen anything happen like this,'' says Todd Henreckson, director of GBC's shredder division. ``It's the fastest-growing category that my company is involved with.'' Within three months after coming out with a low-priced shredder, GBC had shipped more units than all of its 1995 models combined, Henreckson says. Price cuts have made a difference, manufacturers say; household models that used to cost more than $100 now sell for about half that. But Henreckson believes that's not the real force driving the sales boom. ``There's a growing paranoia paranoia (pr'ənoi`ə), in psychology, a term denoting persistent, unalterable, systematized, logically reasoned delusions, or false beliefs, usually of persecution or grandeur. in the U.S.,'' he says. ``People worry about their private becoming public.'' The range of buyers amazes him. He has heard from a church choir director who purchased one of the machines. He has gotten a letter from a recycling program whose bins were raided by crooks who stole credit card numbers. One man, Henreckson says, got the shredder from his wife for his birthday. Friends of Livonia, Mich., resident Pauline Correy thought she was just being paranoid par·a·noid adj. Relating to, characteristic of, or affected with paranoia. n. One affected with paranoia. when she invested $250 in a cross-cut paper shredder earlier this year. But now, Correy says, with more attention being focused on identity fraud, many of her friends are jumping on the shredder bandwagon band·wag·on n. 1. An elaborately decorated wagon used to transport musicians in a parade. 2. Informal A cause or party that attracts increasing numbers of adherents: . She bought the machine about five months ago to prevent thieves from getting their hands on her credit cards and other financial information. ``I used to cut off my name and address and shred it with a scissors scissors Cutting instrument or tool consisting of a pair of opposed metal blades that meet and cut when the handles at their ends are brought together. Modern scissors are of two types: the more usual pivoted blades have a rivet or screw connection between the cutting ends ,'' Correy says. ``It was taking me hours. My time is more valuable than that.'' |
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