While the victim and his wife spent more than four years and more than $15,000 of their own money to restore their credit and reputation, the criminal served a brief sentence for making a false statement to procure a firearm, but made no restitution to his victim for any of the harm he had caused. How do thieves get my information? There have been many reported cases of identity number theft stemming from stolen check books. 4. Have your Social Security Number memorized so you wouldn t have to carry your SS card with you always. Carrying your SS card all of the time increases the risk of it being lost or stolen. If that happen you will be making yourself vulnerable to identity number theft. Identity theft is a growing problem and once you've been victimized, a whole slew of difficulties will arise from this crisis. Don't panic just yet though. Note that from these movies you will see that these types of identity thefts are done with precision and motive. Meaning, when identity theft to that magnitude happens, it is usually committed by someone who knows your personal habits and may not be a serial identity theft. Identity theft and fraud is perfect combination to create a sophisticated crime in the immigration, espionage, frame up a crime, access to somebody else s finances for economic gains. Identity theft and fraud is worst than plain robbing of any material goods, or common personal belongings. Notorious criminals gaining control over important data of checking accounts, credit cards, social security, telephone numbers, passwords to either website or bank accounts, certainly will create havoc. You can even have your account temporarily blocked in order to prevent further losses. Do not forget to report it to the fraud agencies in your area so that everything can be done to apprehend and arrest the offenders as early as possible. Remember, the way you give out your personal information can have its corresponding consequences. Losing your identity can have a lot of repercussions not only in terms of personal properties but also with social reputation. And because identity thieves are real slick, authorities would not know what is happening unless you tell them so. They would not even know that there are two you without you saying that there is.