Do you know what Binnology is?
The term ‘binnology’ is not one that is familiar to most people but was used during the questioning of Ian Hislop during the Leveson Inquiry, and subsequently also Piers Morgan.
The transcript of Ian’s questioning gives us most of what we need to know.
Q. The practice of binnology, have you covered that?
A. Binnology?
Q. Yes.
A. Yes. Again, partly because Benjy did my bins outside the offices of Private Eye. I wrote quite a stiff note to one of my staff and decided no, I wouldn’t send that, that was a bit much, so I threw it away, and then it appeared and I thought: “That’s very odd.” Then we put a camera up and found out Benjy was going through our bins. Mr Fayed was looking for things to print about Private Eye at the time.
Q. Have you any evidence of that or is that surmise?
A. Oh … I think the fact that it appeared in Punch, which he owned, was a give-away
So ‘binnology’ is the practice of searching through peoples bins to find documentary or physical evidence that can help in an investigation. Traditionally private detectives would do this as common practice but nowadays the most likely person to do this is a fraudster. Amazingly people still routinely throw out bills, bank statements and other sensitive document which are gold dust to a fraudster. With just a couple of minutes looking I your neatly recycled paper container they can walk off with enough to open a new bank account in your name, apply for credit cards and rack up huge debts in your name.
So our top tip is spend £10 and get yourself a shredder. Never put your documents out unshredded if they contain your name, address and any other useful information.
