If for some reason someone uses your personal information for anything, that is identity theft. It can be your name, address, credit cards, social security numbers or even your phone number. If any of these are used without your permission it is usually to commit fraud or a crime. The five areas that identity theft falls under are character, financial, social security, medical and drivers license.

It really wouldn't surprise me if we all know someone who has been affected by identity theft in some way. With estimates of 9 million people having their identities stolen in 2008 how could we not know someone?

Your identity can be used in so many different ways. People who steal your information commit crimes, make phone accounts, start businesses, rent homes, get credit cards, insurance and now they are even getting mortgages with stolen identities. You want to make sure you watch your credit card statements very closely. Also if you are contacted by a bill collector and you know this is wrong then you should be checking into it immediately. Lastly if you find out there is a warrant out for your arrest then it's a pretty good chance your identity has been stolen.

Identity theft has become very serious and even deadly over the last few years. Many have given it the term financial cancer. It's pretty tough to always avoid it but the longer it goes undetected the more it will rule your life and become tougher to get away from. There are many cases that get resolved quickly with minimal damage and those are the people that get off lucky. For some people it takes years, hundreds of thousands of dollars. People have lost jobs, been denied insurance and many can't get loans because of the issues with the credit reporting. Hell even some get arrested for crimes they never committed.

Dale and Blair are professional Internet Marketers and Bloggers. They research their topics very precisely and write accurate articles on all their subjects. You can visit their website at / and check out all their blogs at /