Try also to file a complaint with the FTC that will help the agency learn more about identity theft and the problems that victims face on such circumstances. This will be able to help in formulating better solutions to the increasing identity theft problem. Awareness is the key to preventing identity theft. While the victim and his wife spent more than four years and more than $15,000 of their own money to restore their credit and reputation, the criminal served a brief sentence for making a false statement to procure a firearm, but made no restitution to his victim for any of the harm he had caused. How do thieves get my information? Of course there are extreme measures available like shredding all official documents that contain sensitive information such as one's social security number before disposing of them in your garbage can. This is done to prevent thieves from finding this essential information in your trash. It is kind of extreme though because this scenario seems straight out of a recent Hollywood offering but it does happen and in this case, it is better to err in the side of caution than suffer the tremendous headache, confusion and gigantic problems that besiege victims of identity theft. We must be able to understand that such a problem exists and we must be very careful in giving our personal information to anyone. Our personal information has become one of our very valuable possessions. We should be able to treat it like gold. And in case evidence suggests that someone may have already stolen it, there are steps that you can take to protect yourself from further damage. We see and hear about report of huge amounts of personal information being stolen by identity number thieves. The numbers being stolen include veteran number, social security number and credit card number. Identity number thefts are one of the most controversial topics in this day and age of computers, emails and the Internet. Or more recently, there was yet another Hollywood offering that shows a regular family man's ideal home and family turned into a suspense-filled arena for a bank heist because of sensitive information gathered from the family trash? Although, as the disclaimer at the end of these films say, these stories are fictitious, there is indeed cause for alarm for things like these happening to you.