If you have ever had your identity stolen, then you know first hand what terror you go through. Someone has literally assumed your identity and is trailing a long history of credit card abuse and personal information all over the internet, to your creditors and possibly worse. Theft of identity fraud is on the rise. Often the first notice consumers get that someone has fraudulently assumed their identity is either a call from a collection agency demanding payment on an overdue credit account which they never opened or when their own monthly billing statements do not arrive in the mail and they find out the address on their account has been changed by an identity thief.
Most victims never learn how the identity thieves accessed their personal identifying information.
In the course of a busy day, you may write a check at the grocery store, charge tickets to a ball game, rent a car, mail your tax returns, call home on your cell phone, order new checks, or apply for a credit card. Everyday transactions that you may never give a second thought to are an identity thief's bread and butter. While you can't prevent identity theft, you can minimize your risk by managing your personal information wisely. One of the best ways to catch identity theft is to regularly check your credit record. Order your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus each year and make sure all the information is correct.