Now that you have stopped giving strangers your contact details, you should also restrict the information you give away via your trash and letterbox. Make sure your letterbox is locked and that strangers cannot access your letters. Clean it out on a regular basis so new letters are not easy to remove. If you go away on holiday ask a friend to collect your letters. Discourage junk mail — it gives strangers an excuse to stand near your letterbox. One handful of letters can yield valuable data from electricity bills, bank statements and medical information, the names of your family members, receipts for valuable items and so on. A curious thief may find evidence of a brand new television or sound system tempting — they can find the receipt and original box in your house.

A good way to “clean” data from correspondence is to blur details on letters and parcels with a felt tip pen — name, address and other details on the outside and bank account details, cash values and other data on the inside. Rip up the large items like cardboard and plastic, and shred paper and smaller objects like credit cards, vouchers and similar. Don’t leave the boxes from valuable purchases in your garage because you’re too lazy to throw them away. If you dispose of papers with high value, shred the paper and then douse the remains in water until saturated. Reduce the likelihood of a dedicated trash diver reconstructing your letters with cellotape. It can happen.

Stop giving your personal details to strangers.