by Kirsty O'Lone

Created on: May 12, 2008

Identity theft is becoming a major problem in today's society, and many of us are making it all too easy for criminals to steal our identity. There are however some simple things you can do to help protect your identity and stop these criminals from being able to get the information they need to steal it.

To understand how to protect your identity you first have to think about the places where thieves can get your information from. Anything with details such as your full name, address and date of birth on it would be a starting point for someone to use to steal your identity. Always shred any mail with information such as this on it before throwing it away as, believe it or not thieves have been known to go through peoples rubbish in order to get this information.

Think about the internet and how you use it, if you use online banking or even just send or receive emails with personal information in them then this is another way that thieves could steal your information. Although it is easier these days for thieves to get access to your information on the internet, it is also getting easier for you to protect yourself against this. One of the simplest things you can do is to ensure that all your passwords are secure; there are various ways to do this. First off make sure that your passwords are not something that someone else could guess and never have all your passwords the same, if your email password is the same as your online banking password and someone manages to guess the password for your email they then have access to your online banking as well. Don't write your passwords down if you can help it but if you really have to have a reminder try to disguise it as something else and keep the reminder in a safe place. You should also change your passwords regularly just in case anyone does know them.

Be careful when replying to emails and never reply to anything asking for personal information. If you receive an email from your bank asking for your account details or passwords do not reply, this is likely to be what is known as a "phishing" email. This is where thieves fool you into thinking that you are on your banks own website when you are in fact on a site that was built by the thieves themselves, if you enter your details on this site then the thieves have them and can use them to access your accounts. If you receive such an email from your bank, or any other company for that matter do not reply to it but go to the companies own website directly to ensure

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