You must try not to give your personal information to anybody without checking out on them. Make sure that you trust your personal records only to people and institutions that you can trust. Take the necessary precautions on making sure that you still have control of your credit accounts. Always be aware of your credit reports and see to it that you are aware of anything out of the ordinary that may come up on your credit records such as purchases that you haven t made yourself. Bring only one or two credit cards when you go out. This would minimize the chance of you credit being stolen and of you becoming a victim of identity number theft. 6. such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, etc on your laptops or desktops personal computers. Most importantly, it will handle the defenses against any repetition of identity deception. Generally, federal prosecutors cooperate with various investigating agencies to prosecute any identity theft fraud. These are the FBI, The U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. A lot of paperwork is involved when you are filing your complaint to a definite jurisdiction of theft offense. Some use change-of-address cards from the Post Office to have your mail forwarded to another address typically a vacant building. They may steal garbage bags or "dumpster dive" for trash with revealing information. Fellow employees may access information from your personnel file. Bank employees have collected data from their computer databases. Make sure that you hold onto the original police report because you may need to make even more copies. Copies should also be sent to all three credit reporting agencies. Report identity theft to the FTC Even though the police station would be the first people you will think of when asking for help or when reporting an identity theft, do not place much hope that the police will get very far in investigating your case. Identity theft is the fastest growing white-collar crime. It happens when an identity thief obtains some pieces of your personal information. The thief then uses the information about you without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft. The identity thief is disguised as you. The trail leads back to you.