I didn’t even know that there was a problem with my credit until I started getting these phone calls.  I always pay my bills on time, I’ve never missed a payment in my life, but for some reason I found myself among the many unfortunate souls who are experiencing collection harassment.  After doing a little research and obtaining a copy of my credit report I found that there were some unpaid charges on there that I knew absolutely nothing about.  Apparently someone had gotten a hold of all of my pertinent information: my name, my address, my date of birth and my social security number – then got a credit card in my name.  You know the ironic thing about all this is that my mom had gotten me a paper shredder last year for Christmas; I thought it was a pretty unnecessary gift and tossed it in the closet with all the other junk that I never really expected to use.  Well in hindsight it was a mistake to cast the shredder aside, so I’ve already dug it out, dusted it off and put it to use.  Any mail I get that has any personal information on it at all passes through that shredder before it goes into the garbage.