The Shred Easy Blog

So… it seems the new Sex and the City film has seen an upsurge in fake designer goods flooding the market.

The launch of Sex and the City 2 has seen record numbers of women rushing to the flicks to watch their favourite female characters and drool over their designer wardrobes.

However, fans trying to emulate Carrie’s clothes and Samantha’s style has seen the black market flooded with fake designer copies of Chanel jackets, Halston dresses, and Christian Louboutin shoes.

The surge in forged goods means that spotting a fake is harder today. Counterfeit items must be destroyed to stop the black market which contributes to wider criminal activity and presents consumers with poor quality items.

Jim Watson, managing director of Shred Easy, the UK’s leading shredding company, which destroys conterfeit documents, clothing and designer apparel said:

“Female fans trying to emulate their fashion idols should know how to spot fakes online and in the street. Look out for faded logos, cheap material, badly stitched labels, the age of the item, where it was made and distinct patterns like the official Louis Vuitton print.

“These items must be shredded to protect trade marks and to refrain from devaluing exclusive brands.”

Ian Lewis, a fraud partner at Manchester based Lewis Hymanson Small solicitors, said:

“The recession has meant more consumers are being targeted by fraudsters. Counterfeiting has far reaching effects, exposing consumers to poor quality goods, stopping local businesses from competing and helping increase criminality.

“If you have bought a fake item under the impression that it’s an original, you may have rights against the seller and should contact Trading Standards immediately. Your statutory rights may allow you to claim for false advertising.

“If you’re caught selling forged goods Trading Standards could punish you for fraud.”

The film’s costume selection was overseen by Emmy award-winning stylist Patricia Field and is reportedly worth £7 million.

As one of the UK’s leading confidential document and data destruction companies, we are pleased to announce we have been approved to become a member of the internationally renowned, National Association for Information Destruction.

NAID promotes and encourages the secure disposal of redundant confidential information and scrutinises its members through regular auditing to ensure that they continue to attain the highest standards and ethics in respect of the enforcing of its service, processes and operations procedures.
This membership compliments Shred Easy’s recent acceptance as a UK Security Shredding Association (UKSSA) member to offer further assurance to its growing list of customers of the quality and security of the company’s destruction services.
Jim Watson, Managing Director, commented…
“We are proud to announce the membership of NAID. It is always the aim of Shred Easy to provide our customers with a service that is safe, sound and totally secure; giving them total peace of mind.”

Following the launch of our “Name the Truck” competition, we are proud to introduce the first of our fleet to be christened. Welcome Shreddy Brek!
We launched the competition with Bowdon Church Primary School and 10 mini creatives came up with the winning names for 10 of our trucks.
In return, we awarded all 10 children with £15 worth of books vouchers and the children got to see a truck in action.
As one of the UK’s leading confidential document and data destruction companies, we expanded our fleet to cope with the increased demand and we wanted names to personalise them. We recycle 98% of the confidential data we shred and last year saved 250,000 mature trees from deforestation.

The 10 winning names include Da Shredda by Enzo Miniaci age 9, Hercules by William Atkins age 9, The Shredanator by Sze Sze Liu age 9, Shred Head Fred by Bronya Sykes age 10, Shredrick by George Holmes age 8, Roger the Recycler by Laura Jackson age 10, Shirley Shredder by Marc Kendrick age 11, Nibble by Alice Preece age 11, Shreddy Brek (pictured above) by Archie Grosfils age 8 and Maximus Shredder by Niamh Hill age 7.
The competition kicked off with a talk about recycling by Jim Watson, our managing director, and finished with an awards presentation on Tuesday 23 March, where the 10 winners collected £15 book tokens. The signwriting was provided free of charge by Signs Express of Trafford Park, Manchester.

“Its great to see this exciting competition come to fruition and celebrate the creativity of local pupils. The idea was to give something back to our community, have some fun and encourage future generations to think sustainably. Its never too early to start learning about recycling and protecting the planet.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) can now introduce fines of up to £500,000 for breaches of the Data Protection Act.
The new regulations, introduced this week on 6th April 2010, is as a result of the increased numbers of serious data breaches that have hit the headlines. Already in 2010, we have seen 10 such cases, including an incident where confidential and sensitive patient information was found in bin bags outside a supermarket by a member of the public.

With these tougher new penalties now in place, private and public sector businesses are being warned to keep an eye on all confidential customer and corporate information.
Previously, the ICO had the power to fine just £5,000 for serious breaches. This huge increase shows just how seriously data protection is being considered. It is hoped the new measures act as an effective deterrent to improve information and data security within the UK economy.
The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said;
“Getting data protection right has never been more important than it is today. When things go wrong, a security breach can cause real harm and distress to thousands of people
“These penalties are designed to act as a deterrent and to promote compliance with the Data Protection Act.
I remain committed to working with voluntary, public and private bodies to help them stick to the rules and comply with the Act. But I will not hesitate to use these tough new sanctions for the most serious cases where organisations disregard the law.”
For more advice from the ICO, click here.
To read Shred Easy’s top ten tips for protecting your business, click here.

Earlier this week, on Wednesday 24 March, Shred Easy were once again proud to sponsor, and exhibit at, the British Security Industry Association’s annual Security event in Manchester City Centre.
Now in its 15th year, the seminar and exhibition is a must for all Manchester and North West businesses.The theme of this year’s programme was “Security – Whatever the Challenge” and was opened by Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester Police.
During his opening speech, Assistant Chief Constable Shewan reminded delegates and exhibitors of the increased security threats that businesses of all types are currently facing; from online and viral threats and confidential information security management, through to terrorism and even the adverse weather conditions we experienced earlier this year.
The opening session also saw the annual Security Team award presented to the security team at Manchester’s Midlands Hotel – also a Shred Easy customer.
During the course of the day, delegates attended attended seminars delivered by Inspector Sarah Walwork and Inspector John Ormerod of Greater Manchester Police who both talked about two security operation initiatives currently in place; Operation Storm and Operation Synergy.

This was followed by John Kendall of the Bank of England who updated the audience of the work and initiatives introduced by the Bank’s Notes Education division.
Finally, the last seminar of the day was from Steve Hollins of Reliance Security Limited.
Due to the nature of the theme; Security – Whatever the Challenge, the exhibition programme attracted a wide range of security companies offering expert advice and guidance.
As one of the UK’s leading suppliers of confidential shredding services, we were invited to attend the prestigious event.

It was a great day which provided us with the perfect opportunity to meet some of our existing customers. And with information security at the top of all businesses’ agendas, we were able to dispense valuable advice to potential new customers.