The crime of identity theft is a serious one. You can get a lot of information about how to prevent identity theft at the FTC site.

5 steps to saveguard your personal information

1. Buy a shredder. Shred financial statements before you put them in the trash.

2. Protect your Social Security number at all costs. Try not to write down your Social Security number where others will have easy access to it. Leave your Social Security card at home rather than carrying it in your wallet.

3. Don’t give out personal information over the phone, through the mail or over the Internet unless you absolutely know who you are dealing with.

4. Beware of phishing scams. Don’t click on links in unsolicited emails. Sometimes these emails masquerade themselves as coming from banks, Ebay, PayPal or other popular sites. Use anti-spyware and anti-virus software to protect your computer.

5. Use a secure password. Mix it up with letter, numbers and symbols. Don’t use easy to guess words or dates like your birth date. Try not to use the same password all over the internet on different sites. If one password is compromised, your other passwords won’t be affected.

Signs that require your attention

1. Bill do not arrive as expected. Could they have been intercepted?

2. Unexpected credit cards or account statements

3. Denials of credit for no apparent reason

4. Call or letters about purchases that you did not make

Check your credit report

Everyone should use www.annualcreditreport.com at least once a year to get a free credit report. You can get reports from all three credit monitoring agencies - Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can ask for one of them at a time so this lets you have 3 free credit reports per year. Spread them out in 4 month periods.

If you suspect identity theft, place a fraud alert on your credit reports. This will alert the creditors to call you whenever someone tries to apply for credit in your name.

Here are the toll-free numbers for the consumer reporting companies:

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

Experian: 1-888-397-3742

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289

Once again, you should read up on the information at ftc.gov/idtheft.

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