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Have you heard the term straight from the horse’s mouth? While it’s okay to learn about protecting yourself from books and law enforcement agencies, the real teachers are the reformed identity thieves themselves. In 2006, there were approximately 12 Million cases of identity theft reported in the U.S. This translated to about 6.3 billion dollars in costs to consumers, people like you and me. When I first heard these numbers, I was in shock. Like most people, I was totally unaware of just how large this problem was becoming. This led me to ask one of my friends in the law enforcement community what they knew about the problem. Boy was I surprised at what I learned. After that conversation, I was made aware of four common misconceptions one identity their used to steal our money. Misconception # 1 There are More Male Identity Thieves Than Female All to often when we watch television or read the newspaper, we are presented with images of identity thieves portrayed as men. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, many of these criminals are young attractive women. Research has proven time and time again that both men and women tend to relax themselves around other women. These criminals use this to their advantage. Just remember, everyone is a potential thief. While you should not be nervous, you should be careful. Misconception # 2 Trusting Your Friendly Store Clerk or Waiter This one is hard to combat because in most cases you are required to hand over personal information and or documents to store clerks or waiters at restaurants. What you may not know is that some of those people who are waiting on you may in fact have two jobs. By day they work in the local department store but at night they have a side job. Their side job is simply to provide a few customers credit card numbers to their friends. This works so well because they have access to your credit card or account number. The only way to really combat this is to review your account statements. It is also a good idea to keep a journal of expenditures greater than a certain dollar amount. You might also consider setting a spending limit. An ideal example would be about $100. Now, you can alert yourself every time an expense occurs over that amount. Think about this for a moment. The average cashier will handle literally hundreds of personal transactions in a few weeks time. Do you think it might be possible that of those, some customers bought more than they were expecting to buy? Misconception # 3 Throwing Away My Credit Offers Immediately Protects Me Can I be very honest with you? Many of these credit card companies could care less if you have your identity stolen. Part of the reason is because they will make it incredibly difficult for you to restore your good name and in some cases require you to furnish proof that even Perry Mason or Matlock could not locate. The bottom line is if you are serious about protecting your identity, you should shred your documents before throwing them away. You should also separate the contents of the items and toss them in different trash bins. I would also encourage you to shred the reply envelopes as well. You can never be too safe. Listen, all a thief has to do is get a hold of one piece of information from your trash can and you quickly become a victim. Don’t believe me? Let me ask you this, what are doing at 3a.m.? Really, well guess what our trustworthy identity thief is doing? She is in your trash can randomly pulling a bag out of your can for shifting and sorting later. Quick Tip: If you still feel uneasy about just shredding your personal mail, you can also submerge the documents in water to ensure that it becomes too much of a hassle for even the best identity thieves. The goal is to make it very hard for you or your family to become victims. Misconception # 4 Using Your Home to Receive and Deliver Mail I’ll keep this one short, because it is so very clear. By putting your outgoing mail or incoming mail in an unattended mailbox, you are exposing your personal information to potential thieves. You must stop this at once. Here is a simple tip. First, drop all of your outgoing mail in a local United States Postal Service mailbox. Second, consider opening a P.O. Box. I know this seems inconvenient but to truly protect yourself, these are some of the preventative measures you must take to win the fight against identity theft. The real problem is that there are so many opportunities to become a victim; you really need 24 hour protection. Stop trying to make it without help! Listen, very few people can successfully protect themselves and their families without help. The major problem is that you have been trying to do it alone and it is just NOT effective. How much difference would it make in your life if you had a proven guide who has been in the trenches? There are many companies that provide affordable identity theft solutions for people like you and me. However, before you join a credit monitoring service of some type, make sure that they have the stamp of approval from consumers and police officers alike.