Any holder of information identifiers of social security number, credit cards, bank account number, driver s license, health care, and other financial sources is at risk. Everyone is vulnerable, offline or online. Households, telephone booths, and garbage areas are common places where criminals loiter around to look for their prey. Make sure to verify how they dispose private information and rule out carelessness in exchanging or disclosing them to other people. No matter how you take care of your information, there are instances where it slipped off your fingers uncontrolled depending on your daily activities. Just like other ancient crimes covered by the penalties imposed by the law, identity theft is personally damaging to one's integrity. It can be as easy as calling your own credit card issuer to change your billing address once they get hole of your credit card information. The impostor can then run charges on your account without you even knowing it because your bills are being sent to a different address. With your stolen credit information in the wrong hands, impostors may also be able to open new credit card accounts in your own name. By shredding all of your mail and important papers before you throw them in the garbage, you'll make it impossible for identity thieves to get their hands on your discarded correspondence. When you provide information to businesses or stores, such as hotels or rental car companies, ask them if they shred hardcopies of your information before disposing of it. In recent years, the Internet has become the perfect place for criminals to obtain personal data, such as passwords or even banking information. In their haste to explore the exciting features of the Internet, many people respond to "spam" unsolicited E-mail that promises them some benefit but requests identifying data, without realizing that in many cases, the requester has no intention of keeping his promise. No one can be immune to being an identity theft victim. In the world that we live in today and the convenience that we give out our personal information, it only makes us unlikely victims to identity thieves. There is not a single solution to the identity theft problem. But there are ways that we can do to prevent it.