Start protecting yourself by adopting a "need to know" approach to your personal data. If someone you don't know calls you on the telephone and offers you the chance to receive a "major" credit card, a prize, or other valuable item, but asks you for personal data -- ask them to send you a written application form. There a surprising number of places where a person's social security number is their identity number.
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Identity Theft encompasses all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain.
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