Stolen Identity = Ruined Life

We've all heard about people going through identity theft or stolen credit cards with fraudulent charges, but how about when the stolen identity leads to a ruination of one's life and reputation?

An excerpt from an article on BBC:
"The BBC reports on the sad case of Simon Bunce. Mr. Bunce had his identity stolen, and credit cards were made to capitalize on the theft. Some of those cards were used at sites offering child pornography, and as a result Mr. Bunce was swept up in Operation Ore. The poor man was prosecuted for his 'crime', and was eventually found innocent, but in the meantime he lost his job. It took him six months to find another at a quarter of the salary."
The article goes on to report:
"Recent surveys suggest that as many as one in four Britons have been affected by it. In 2007 more than 185,000 cases of identity theft were identified by Cifas, the UK's fraud prevention service, an increase of almost 8% on 2006.'"

So you ask, how are we affected by this?
The Internet is an International network, so what happens elsewhere on the Internet can affect us. Fraud is everywhere on the Internet. Malicious people from other countries such as Russia (or people from the U.S. through servers in other countries) break in to legitimate online businesses and steal information. This information is then sold to others who in turn may sell the information again or use it to create new lines of credit to make fraudulent charges.
There are also malicious people that create on-line stores to get personal information. Some actually sell real products, and some do not ship anything to you after you fill out your information and try to purchase their products.

So, if you shop on the Internet you should be aware of a few things:

1. On-line store's business address, hours of business and contact numbers
   
2. Validate the contact numbers by placing a call to ask some questions about the product or their policies - this bit of due diligence to ensure this is a real business
3. Use a major credit card for purchases online or use paypal that is tied to your major credit card.
4. Do NOT use your bank check card - this gives thieves direct access to your bank account!
   
5. Be aware of your credit report and preferably sign-up for a credit monitoring service that monitors all three of the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) - I recommend myfico.com and selecting their Quarterly Monitoring service - the cheapest and most complete service I found - $50 per year. They have a 25% off sale going on now
6. Constantly check your credit cards online for charges. I check mine once a week or a few days after I make a purchase to ensure the charges shows up correctly and I also make sure my has product shipped
   

There are more items to keep in mind. In short, shred your important paperwork, using something like a variable cut shredder, keep a close eye on your credit report, keep an even closer eye on credit card charges and be choosy of your shopping site.