Identity theft is real and is on the rise. Current estimates indicate that about one in four families in the US have been affected by some form of identity theft. This amounts to billions of dollars of losses to families and businesses. Money from your bank account can be stolen, your credit cards can be used, and in some cases cars or homes are bought by people who have stolen your identity. Now is the time to take action to protect your identity from this growing concern.

Below are some tips that you can use to help protect you and your family from the worldwide gangs of identity thieves.
Shred any and all documents that contain personal information-many people are concerned about purchasing something on the Internet because they’re afraid of identity theft, but the most common way that they take your information is from the paper that you throw out every day. Identity thieves go through trash to try to find documents that contain personal information so make sure that you shred every single document that you throw away that might contain personal information that could be used by identity thieves.

Only give out your social security number when it is absolutely necessary-when conducting any type of business, make sure to question someone whenever they ask for your social security number. Unless they’re using it to run a credit or other type of background check, many times it is not needed and you may still conduct business without giving it up.
Use a dummy bank account-one way to protect your money when making purchases is to use a dummy bank account. This is a bank account that you open up and only fund when you’re going to be making a particular purchase so that if identity theft does occur during the transaction, your risk of loss will be greatly minimized.
Make a copy of every card/document in your wallet-if your wallet is lost or stolen, there is a great chance that the information contained within will be used against you for identity theft. It is important that you have a copy of every single credit card, ID card, or other document so that you can contact each bank or institution and cancel these cards immediately and have them reissued.
Identity thieves are becoming more and more advanced with every passing year so make sure to follow the identity protection tips above and make it harder for them to carry out these illegal and life damaging activities.