Just watched a program on tv (bbc) the other night about identity theft. Scary stuff how easy it is to steal your identity either on-line or the old fashioned way by stealing paperwork and you will have no idea how or when it happened. And so much information is available about you on the internet these days it is impossible protect yourself fully. There seems to be no way to fully protect yourself, but common sense things like good up-to-date virus and firewall software whenever you are on-line, never use the same password for several sites, critical of who you purchase from on-line and in real life.

I had my cc compromised a few years back too. No idea how they got the info, but somehow someone managed to have what looked like a very nice holiday in Morocco charged to my cc. The card was never missing from my wallet and I hadn't used it for nearly a year before it was compromised. Luckily the bank got suspicious of the charges and blocked the card before I even noticed and they cleared all the charges without too much hassle.