What Are the Dangers of Selling a Used Computer?
If you have an old computer stashed away, collecting dust, you may wonder what to do with it. Many municipalities won’t accept computers with the regular trash because of the toxins found in e-waste, such as lead. Selling a used computer could present problems as well, both legal and financial. Identity and Data Theft The main danger in selling a used computer is the data on the hard drive. Erasing the data is not sufficient. Even formatting the hard drive will not deter a determined thief with the right software-recovery tools. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends two methods to ensure that your data does not fall into the wrong hands: You must destroy the hard drive or use a software application especially designed to eradicate data from it. Selling to a private party is risky, but so is trading in your used computer equipment to a retailer that may not wipe the hard drive clean before reselling it. Circuit City, which went out of business in 2009, liquidated all its invento
