What you can do to recover from identity theft is question on the minds of many now with the ever increasing threat and awareness of the problem, the answers to which are important whether your identity has been stolen or not.
Knowing how to properly go about retrieving your identity should it ever happen could save you weeks or months of frustration.
That said, doing everything in your power to prevent identity theft from ever strike is of course where your primary concern should lay.
The truth is that even after retrieving your identity, you will likely feel vulnerable and helpless for many months, maybe even for the rest of your life.
It's an invasion of privacy and security to the extent that you'll likely never forget it.
It's a crime that strikes from the shadows with you not ever suspecting its presence, and one from which the perpetrator sinks back into the shadows just as quickly.
The culprits behind crimes like this are rarely caught even with more and more money being put behind cyber-crime task forces world-wide.
The majority of identity theft is conducted online, where information can easily be intercepted while being passed around, or where you're entire system and all of the data on it can be compromised by a hacker implanting your system with any number of devices, from Trojans to key-loggers.
Keeping your computer up-to-date with the latest security programs and updates is absolutely vital.
Within minutes of a new virus or threat being released on the internet, the best security programs will already have created patches to neutralize it and protect your system.
But the threat of identity theft doesn't just exist in the online realm.
Though it's much less likely, your identity could also be stolen through something as simple as a visit to the doctor's office, putting out a seemingly innocent financial document in the trash or paying with your credit card at any store.
Any situation in which your personal information can be seen by others puts you at a risk to have your identity stolen.
If you suspect identity theft you need to get into contact with your credit card companies and other credit agencies immediately and dispute the charges laid on you and get to the bottom of what's happening.
In just a short amount of time a person with your identity can use it to completely cripple you financially.
The sooner you put stops on any transactions through your credit cards, etc.
The sooner you can stop the financial bleeding and work to repair the wound.
Recovering from identity theft takes a lot of time and effort.
You'll need to reorganize your life, everything relating to your financial affairs needs to be changed, new passwords put into place, maybe even new daily routines or a change of environment put in effect.
Identity theft is a very real problem that puts us all at risk, no matter how safe we may think we are.
The sooner we realize this and ensure we're doing everything possible to prevent it occurring to us, the better off we'll be.