Identity theft dangers are everywhere, but particularly at busy airports. People are quick to dispose of their boarding passes after they have landed by merely tossing them into a trash receptacle, but your boarding pass barcode can be easily decoded by an identity thief who retrieves your discarded boarding pass from which he can gain much information including information about your frequent flier account which can be used to make you a victim of identity theft.  All an identity thief needs is a barcode scanner which can easily be obtained online to access a wide range of information that the airline has about you on your boarding pass including, for some airlines, your email address, phone number and more.  In addition, a clever identity thief can leverage this information by posing as the airline in calling you, providing your account number and then tricking you into providing more personal information that can be used against you.

TIPS

As for your boarding pass, the best protection is to shred the boarding pass once you no longer need it rather than merely toss it into a waste basket. Even better is to not even use a paper boarding pass, but rather get your boarding pass digitally sent to you on your phone.

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