They get it from your computer, especially those without firewalls. They may be a friend or relative or someone who works for you who has access to your information Tips to Consumers: How can I prevent identity theft? While no one can totally prevent this crime from occurring, here are some tips that can help you decrease your risk. For your credit accounts, you can report it to the different fraud agencies who can issue a fraud alert on your account. This alert would notify creditors to contact you every time a new account is being made under your name. You can also have your affected credit accounts closed to stop further violations. You are just one of those nameless individuals struggling to reclaim their identity. Countless people have been victimized by this crime and have lost everything. So if you are a victim tell other people and tell it to the right people. Report identity theft If you have been a victim, do not hesitate to call the police or any authorities that can help you. With today s technology and the growing sophistication of the world wide web, hackers and con artists are now living in a world that used to only exist in the pages of a science fiction book or a scene in a suspense-thriller movie. This can be a major problem for anyone because not only will you have to worry about your personal properties like credit cards and bank accounts, you also have to think about the fact that someone else is using your name and your reputation to do god-knows what. It composed of CPA s, CrFA s, and investigators who will help you in all angles of your financial loss to the offender. Most importantly, it will handle the defenses against any repetition of identity deception. Generally, federal prosecutors cooperate with various investigating agencies to prosecute any identity theft fraud. 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.