WESLACO--The BBB is encouraging the community to avoid identity theft by shredding their sensitive financial documents.

More than 400,000 people filed identity theft complaints with the Federal Trade Commission last year.

Dolores Salinas, president of the Better Business Bureau of South Texas said if you don't dispose of the information properly, it could get stolen.

"We encourage people not to throw away this type of information in the trash," said Salinas.

"If it has social security numbers, if it has your bank account numbers...your credit card statements have a lot of important information about you," said Salinas.

The better business bureau said they hold these shredding events two to three times a year.

Roy Salinas said he makes it a point to come each time.

He's an IT manager at a CPA firm.

Salinas said identity theft is a big problem in his business.

"More and more people are having problems with their tax return because other people use their information. They go to file, and it happens that their tax return have already been filed, and we have to do all kinds of paperwork," said Roy Salinas.

Salinas said he took precautions to prevent that from happening to himself by using protective software.

"Anytime my social is used, or information is used, I get the email and it gets blocked," said Salinas.

He said he'll continue to shred documents to avoid them from ending up in the wrong hands.

The next shredding event is scheduled for the spring.