In 2005 some ten millions residents of the USA were victims of identity theft with each one losing an average of about $7,000.

Clearing their name can take each victim a year during which time they’ll spend some 200 hours working on the problem (writing letters, making phone calls, etc.) at a personal cost of over $1,000 in expenses. That’s over a month of full time employment.

Even then a quarter of all victims will not succeed in clearing their name.

So how do identity thieves steal the personal information they use to such devastating effect?

Identity thieves will steal your mail, search through your trash, steal from your home, steal your purse or wallet.

And don’t imagine these identity thieves are always unknown to you because the people who have the easiest access to your belongings are people you let into your home or people you associate with at work, in clubs and in public place.

Identity thieves can also make use of public records and phone books. And these days many of these records are stored and easily accessed online.

Of course, some identity thieves will go to greater lengths by using easily available software programs to attack insecure networks or vulnerable home computers.

Having stolen your identity what do the thieves do with your personal information?

42% will steal from existing credit card accounts or spend money on a new account created in the stolen name.

20% will commit telephone or utility fraud.

13% will steal from an existing bank account or open a new account in the stolen name from which they can withdraw money.

9% will use the stolen identity to gain employment, 7% to obtain a loan and 6% to obtain documents such as a driver’s license, social security number or government benefits.

It behoves us all to take care of our identity, to treat it as something just as precious as other valuable belongings and to take all reasonable steps to ensure that others cannot steal it.