Freckles & Doubt

I'm very sorry to hear about your banking fraud woes. This sort of thing should stop now: you've had quite enough to put up with this year alone.

I'm starting to come over to the school of thought that suggests you cultivate _two_ very distinct signatures - a quick scrawl for most work-related things, and a proper signature for all formal, personal purposes, such as banking or passport applications. It could even be something as simple as spelling out a first name in one and not in the other. That way you have a very clear distinction between your professional and private interests, and with it an added layer of security.

We used to shred everything as well, with a cross-cut rather than strip-cut shredder. But we've gone through two shredders so far (we have a lot of documents that need shredding, not least because of the nature of my SO's work). So what we tend to do now is pile the papers up and burn them every once in a while.
The in-laws have a cottage which can be heated only with a central wood-burning stove, so it's fairly easy for us; but if you braai relatively frequently anyway, you can dispose of a regular stream of documents that way, too.