As the time goes on, the identity thieves are becoming more and more sophisticated.  Before one of the greatest threats to losing your identity was due to “dumpster diving”.  Here the identity thief would go through your trash to retrieve your personal information.  Even though it is still a threat, there are many other ways that an identity thief can steal your identity.

Do you go out to eat at restaurants?  A few months ago I went out to lunch with some co-worker. We had a great time and gave our credit cards to the waiter.  We noticed that he took a while to get back to us but the restaurant was full so we just figured he was busy.  A day or two later I was alerted by my bank about some suspicious activity on my account.  I happen to mention it to my co-workers and they checked and had some fraudulent activities as well. Luckily I found out early and was able to take action right away to minimize the

I had another friend that decided to check his bank account while visiting a local coffee shop.  He was unaware that an identity thief frequented that coffee shop to access the laptops connected to the public WiFi network at the coffee shop.  Before my friends coffee was cold, the identity thief cleared out his bank account.

Database breeches are happening at an alarming rate.  One just has to monitor the newscast for stories of a database breach.  Employees with access to the customer’s personal information are selling the information to supplement their salaries.

The other day I received a letter from a government agency with a lot of my personal information that was unsealed.  Looks like something happened to the machine that seals the envelop and it when out unsealed.  I can only imagine how many hands it went through on its way to my house.  All they had to do was to pull out the information and take a quick picture with their smartphone?

As you can see there is no 100% way to prevent identity thief.  The best you can do is to be aware and monitor your credit file, accounts, and statements frequently.