A high caliber business company will always protect the interests of its customers. Though identity theft cases left many victims alone, hurdling to claim innocence, companies never stop finding security alternatives even to the point of hiring reputable hackers themselves to help them with their system loopholes. Seems tedious yes but if your wallet is stolen, all your valuable numbers are left vulnerable to unscrupulous thieves who can compromise your identity. A much simpler way of protecting yourself against identity theft through your social security number is by simply being careful when giving it away. Remember that mostly, only government agencies have the right to ask for your social security number. Just think-if your wallet was stolen or you have for one reason or another, been physically separated from items that contain sensitive information like your social security number, credit card information, driver's license number, etc-- it is easy to prevent identity theft because you can cancel all your cards and report them stolen to prevent anyone misusing your personal information for their gain. "Generally, we'll find out if they're a victim before they know and we'll notify them," Burke said. It's called identity theft shield, an around the clock system of monitoring your credit, restoring your identity and reimbursing your costs in case your good name is stolen and used against you. In case you find yourself experience such problems, there are some steps that you should undertake. First of all, you should try to contact the fraud departments in order to put a fraud alert on your credit report. The fraud alert will notify the creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts under your name or making any changes on your existing account. They open a new credit card account, using your name, date of birth, and Social Security number. When they use the credit card and don t pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report. They call your credit card issuer and, pretending to be you, change the mailing address on your credit card account.