NORTH BEND — When it comes to identity theft, an ounce of prevention is worth thousands of dollars of cure.

Yet, many people remain easy targets.

Nearly every day, the Coos County Sheriff’s Office gets up to 40 reports of fraud and attempted fraud whether by mail theft or by scam.

“When people aren’t paying attention, that’s when the identity thieves strike,” said Elke Dodd, a credit counselor with the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Coos-Curry Inc.

Last year, she said, about 8.4 million people were victims of identity thefts, totaling a loss of $49.3 billion.

With these facts in mind, the counseling service, along with the help of local police, deputies and the FBI, stepped up on Saturday to stamp out the trend in the Bay Area.

To give residents the tools they need to protect themselves, the Counseling Service, in partnership with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, hosted Free Confidential Document Shred Day on Saturday at the Pony Village Mall. The event, which included free document shredding and presentations by law enforcement officers, was held in honor of National Protect Your Identity Week and National Crime Prevention Month.

“What I want to get across is just because you live in a small community, you can still be a victim of identity theft,” Dodd said.

According to the Counseling Service, the average victim’s loss per incident is $4,800 and that victim will spend an average of 600 hours and $1,400 resolving issues related to the crime. Dodd noted that many people aren’t aware that they’ve become victims until months after an incident — that is until they get a bill or a notice from a collections agency.

“At that point, all they can do is protect themselves,” she said.

About 100 people wandered in and out of the five-hour event, stopping to listen to words of warning from North Bend Officer Jon Bohanan, Scott Rogers of Coos Bay Police Department, sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Sherman and FBI Agent Jason Cherry.

Rogers, a Coos Bay detective, said identity theft is committed when a person, with the intent to deceive or to defraud, obtains, possesses, transfers, creates, utters or converts to the person’s own use the personal identification of another person.

During his presentation, the detective spoke of a case in late December in Coos County in which two people went to great lengths to steal checks, chemically wash them and then write in their names and new amounts. Together, they stole about $15,000 from residents.

“Identity thieves are after anything you would use to get a bank account or credit card,” Rogers said.

Although each officer gave a different perspective on identity theft and fraud crimes, they shared a common message: You can protect yourself.

“I work hard for my money. I don’t want to just give it away. I’m sure a lot of you are in the same boat,” Bohanan said.

Steps such as not leaving mail in the box too long, shredding mail and other sensitive documents, picking up new checks at your bank instead of having them mailed, and avoiding giving personal information over the phone, mail or internet, were just a few of Bohanan’s tips. He also suggested checking your credit report regularly.

The North Bend officer said many fraud and identity theft cases begin with offers that are beyond belief. In one recent case, a man on limited income got involved in an inheritance scam. He was told he’d receive $2 million if he paid a processing fee. In the end, he spent about $3,600 before he realized he’d been had.

Other popular scams involve foreign lotteries and offers to make easy money as a secret shopper.

“I have a motto — if it sounds too good to be true, it might just be,” Bohanan said.

After the talk, North Bend resident Terry Walton said, although he said he knew many of the tips, he now realizes just how predatory some criminals can be.

“With the economy getting the way it is now, it’s happening a bit more than it has in the past,” Walton said. “The more information that gets out, the more prepared you are to be aware of these criminal attempts.”

Bohanan said education is definitely a way to keep the community safer. He added that many identity theft crimes are connected to the failing economy and another prevalent issue in the area — street drugs.

“They have no money so they’re doing what it takes to acquire money. Basically, they’ll do whatever it takes to get it,” Bohanan said.