Idenity Theft occurs when someone other than yourself uses your personal information without authorization from you to establish credit, open fraudulent accounts, using your social security number to work under, etc.

Identity Theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States and has become one of the top consumer concerns. Identity Theft can happen to anyone and with today's technology stealing it has become an easy task for some. The Federal Trade Commission suggests that approxiamately 9 million people will be effected by some form of Identity Theft this year.

Identity Theft is a serious crime. Some Identity Theft victims may be able to solve their problem quickly if it is caught in time. Other cases of Identity theft could go on undetected for years and could end up costing the victim thousands of dollars and countless hours of time to clear their name.

You should always take steps to protect yourself from Identity Theft. Protecting yourself doesn't have to be a time consuming project. You can protect yourself by just spending a couple of extra minutes here and there by just checking your account statements, looking over credit reports, being aware of what you are downloading onto your computer, Keeping your personal information in a secured place, etc.

When thieves decide they want to steal something that is exactly what their gonna do and they will do whatever it takes to get it. That is why it is so important to monitor your accounts and credit reports.

Here are some ways criminal steal your personal information:

-Dumpster Diving. Thieves will rummage through your garbage looking for bills, account statements, or any other papers that may contain your personal information. So Always make sure you shred all papers containing such information.

-Stealing your mail from your mailbox. Make sure you retrieve your mail as soon as possible and deposit outgoing mail in a postal drop box. Your mail to an Identity thief is like gold. They can get all the personal information and account numbers from your mail they need to do serious damage to you.

-Old Fashion Stealing. Make sure your wallet or purse is secured andout of sight from thiefs. Never carry your social security number in your wallet. Keep it secured at home.

-Skimming. When thieves use a special storage device to retrieve and store your credit card and atm numbers when scanned.

-Phishing. When thieves send you emails or pop ups pretending to be a financial institution or company needing your personal information for verification for a prize, etc. that they may have for you.

-Pretexting. when someone uses false pretenses to obtain your personal information from companies.