by Alex Kelley

Created on: November 04, 2009   Last Updated: November 26, 2009

You're thinking: sure, just another piece on identity theft. Well, yes - and no. First, it's important to understand what identity theft is and why you should protect against it. Then, you'll get words of advice on how to do just so. This article does not intend to cover every possible detail about identity protection, instead it will address a couple less commonly debated angles.

There is a lot of overwhelming and downright frightening information nowadays about stolen identity. Reports from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse mention 8 million victims for 2006 alone. What exactly does this mean? In a broad definition, identity theft ranges from using stolen credit cards to full application fraud, where the thief uses the victim's social security number and other personal information to open accounts, take loans and so on.

The solution seems easy: just protect your personal information and everything will be okay. This approach is not quite correct. While it is true that being cautious about sharing your social security number helps, most people don't realize two other things: first, that your information is only as safe as the weakest link in the network where it travels, and second, that your online self can be discovered by a large number of unfriendly individuals.

The idea of the weakest link is similar to the TV show with the same name. Yes, you are doing everything you should do about protecting your personal information, but you need to share it with your bank, your credit card company, your employer and so on. You don't have much of a choice in trusting these entities and this article is not suggesting the opposite either; yet you should be aware that mistakes can happen, some more serious than others, but in the end you need to be informed in the case that any of your information has been compromised.

As far as online activities are concerned, there are many little pieces that can re-create the YOU puzzle. It requires a little more work for a thief to access all the public places where you exist (a phone directory, Facebook, Twitter, an online resume, job profile and others), but it is free and does not require breaking the law, as some of the offline practices do in gathering information. Once the identity thief moves to actually taking over your identity, of course it becomes a crime - but he will be harder to catch because he now has more information available about your person and knows you better. Thus, if you are involved in a number of social

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