I would like to give a brief run down the different types of Identity Theft. Many people are unaware of these types, and thus are very vulnerable. In future Hubs I'll go into detail about each one, and what are the best practices to protect yourself from them.

Identity Theft happens when another person or an organization takes all or parts of your identity and uses this key info for their own purposes. This can include from obtaining credit, employment and committing crimes and avoiding being arrested. Identity theft is becomes the number crime in America. It is hard to track since it transcends state lines and international barriers.

Yet Identity Theft can crate a complete havok on a person's life. People lose their life savings, jobs, reputation, even their freedom. A minor job for the Identity Theft can create years of nightmare. It is critical to be educated and aware of this growing challenge. It is also important to seek ways to prevent or help to deal with Identity Theft if it ever occurs to you.

Lets talk about the different types of IDT. Most of people are only familiar with one type, and thus leave themselves completely vulnerable to the other ones.

Financial/Credit Identity Theft - This is the most familiar type of IDT, although not the only one around. Financial IDT can range from someone using your credit card without your authorization, to someone opening a new card in your name and finally as bad as someone buying a house or two with a mortgage in your name. This can be very unpleasant and can really mess up your life since so much of it these days revolves around our credit score. Also, more and more financial institutions don't want to take the hit anymore, and go after their clients to pay for the fraudulent charges even though they were clearly fraudulent. If you think your Credit Card has your best interests in mind, think again.

Medical Identity Theft - How about you go to dispute the hospital bill for a visit by and IDT thief and you are told since it was not you who got the services, they can't discuss it with you then due to the HIPA act, but you still got to pay. Today there are many people who are without health insurance. It is fairly simple to go to a hospital and use someone else's stolen insurance information to get a treatment. What if it was yours, and then you go to the same hospital and get a wrong blood type? This can be life threatening.

Driver License Identity Theft (DMV IDT) - Happened to a friend of mine's brother. Someone stole his wallet, bought a car in another state and then later got into car accident. My friend's brother had to go to court numerous times since the other party in the accident charged the damages to the person to whom the car was registered to. This was a bit exreme, but even a simple DWI on your driving record that was committed by your Driver License thief will still hurt a lot.

Social Security IDT - IRS will usually don't care who worked under your SS#, they will garnish your wages first for the taxes that are owned under your SS#, then they maybe will listen to you. There are millions illegal aliens working in US under someone else's SS#. And guess what, US government is not to eager to combat that since they are paying billions into the severely underfunded Social Security and Medicare system. The better part for US Government is that they will never draw that money out. Just don't try to explain that to the IRS.

Criminal/Character IDT - This type relates to someone who commits a crime and uses someone else's name when they get arrested. There was a story of a teacher who lost her job because a prostitute stole her purse, and then used it when she was arrested a couple of times. How do you prove to the schools principal it wasn't you? Nothing really to do with your credit, right?

Finally, IDT criminals are becoming really creative. The newest wave is slicing, they will use only part of your identity. Say they will use your SS# and someone else name when they apply for the job. That becomes even harder to clean up since things don't agree. It also becomes harder to track. Your credit might be squeaky clean, and you go for that mortgage, and in the last moment - boom - they found some inconsistency and have to delay the mortgage, or push you into a higher rate.

Also important to note that when you put a freeze on your account(life with the Lifelock), a lot of credit and financial institutions will be more cautions about your account, and it may result in a higher APR. This of course is not across the board, but you never know.

When you seek IDT protection product seek one that will help you in all of these areas. Also you may need Legal Representation as well. See if your IDT plan will cover that. A lot of different places will monitor your credit, but few help you out in any other situation. Prepaid Legal and Kroll have a product I use and also market. If you are interested visit my site: