RALEIGH -- In an effort to curb identity theft, State Attorney General Roy Cooper announced a series of shred-a-thons will be held across North Carolina.

David Elliot, a victims advocate in the A-G's Office, says unsavory opportunists will use sensitive information on your old bank statements, medical bills or anything with sensitive data they can get their hands on ...

"Any information with personal information on it can be used by an identity thief to get access to existing credit or sometime apply for new credit. Shredding is just one step consumers can take to try to prevent identity theft."

Identity theft has been the top consumer complaint to the Federal Trade Commission for more than a decade ... To find a Shred-a-thon event in your area visit NCDOJ dot gov for a list of dates and times.