If you have found out that you have charges on your credit card that you haven t known about, chances are that someone has been using your credit card. In case you find yourself experience such problems, there are some steps that you should undertake. First of all, you should try to contact the fraud departments in order to put a fraud alert on your credit report. Identity theft happens when someone you do not know begins using your personal information for fraud and other crimes without your knowledge. Criminals can get it in a variety of ways. They can steal your personal information form your credit records. They can also get it from your credit and bank statements that come by mail. " By one industry estimate, more than 1,000 people a day in the United States fall victim to crimes of stolen identity. In 1997 the U.S. Secret Service make 9,455 arrests involving identify fraud. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse there are over 400,000 thefts of identity each year with that result in more than $2 Billion worth of annual losses for the country. Just think-if your wallet was stolen or you have for one reason or another, been physically separated from items that contain sensitive information like your social security number, credit card information, driver's license number, etc-- it is easy to prevent identity theft because you can cancel all your cards and report them stolen to prevent anyone misusing your personal information for their gain. The existence of the track records, innocently created by simple browsing, enables crime makers to intervene through your codes to your local computer. On the contrary, reputable sites leave scripts for a simple reason of making the browsing convenient to returning visitors. Identity theft cases are just a few consequences of online presence. 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?