Identity theft, one of the most frequently reported crimes in America, is a federal crime under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. Identity fraud occurs when a charlatan illegitimately uses your personal and/or financial information to use your credit accounts, tap your bank accounts, get new credit in your name, file fraudulent tax returns, get cell phones in your name, access your insurance benefits, and so on. For years, the primary cause of identity fraud has been good old-fashioned or low-tech analog crime. Charlatans rummaging though mailboxes, snatching purses or searching the garbage for discarded bank statements or credit card receipts used to be prime examples of identity thieves. Identity thieves use what we call dumpster diving to increase their odds of finding someone's indentity information for their use.

Rapid progressions in technology have seen a plague of sophisticated phishing email attacks. These emails persuade the reader to click on links leading to false web sites that look similar to online banking sites, online auction sites (for instance, eBay), or online shopping site (for example, Wal-Mart). One of the more alarming ways that pretenders steal your ID is via spyware, or bugs that search your system for personal information and anonymously send it to someone over the Internet. Identity thieves also use key-loggers to watch and report every keystroke you make. To protect yourself against these types of threats you should install identity theft software like a firewall on your computer such as ZoneAlarm, McAfee Personal Firewall, or Norton Personal Firewall to block unidentified outgoing traffic from your system to the Internet. The small investment in these forms of software will go a long ways in providing you protection.

You should also consider installing comprehensive identity theft software like a security suite, such as McAfee Internet Security Suite, Norton Internet Security, or ZoneAlarm Security Suite. In addition to virus protection and firewall software, this identity theft software includes tools to keep your personal information safe and secure. The functionalities of all these identity theft software are similar. You enter sensitive information, such as your bank account, credit card, and Social Security number into the software. Then, whenever you send your personal information via email, type it into a web site, and so on, this identity theft software sends you an alert. It protects you against ID fraud by ensuring private information is never relayed from your system without your knowledge.