You wouldn't want to find your self in Johns shoes.

John and his wife Judy enjoy a great life together. They have good jobs and a great relationship. Johns kids are normal youngsters, aged 9, 10 and 12. Two boys and a girl, as a group this brood keeps them on the move. John and Judy are well known and liked within their circle of acquaintance and actively involved in church and school functions.

John is admired and looked up to by many who knew him. At least he was until the devil played his fiddle. John came in from coaching Little League that Thursday night to find two strangers waiting for him in his living room. Men in dark suits wearing somber expressions, who had Judys nerves dancing on a wire. Johns easy mood evaporated when he learned he was under investigation for terrorist activity.

The only terror with any remote connection to the Does was the two FBI agents.

Yet the FBI was convinced that John was directly involved in shipping contraband weapons and ammunition to the Middle East. His name and credit card had shown up on documents under close watch. Yet John had not left town without Judy for over a year. The agents wanted them both to take a lie detector test.

How could two upstanding, law-abiding citizens be accused of any such crime?

The credit card numbers used did not match any of Johns cards. The FBI insisted the charge card accounts were in Johns name, and at his home address. Judy remembered the incident at the park when Johns wallet had been stolen out of their bags along with their digital camera. It couldn't have been one of the old cards because the accounts were closed.

John was permitted to pull his credit record to look for unauthorized accounts.

There were three VISA accounts in Johns name from banks the Does did not do business with. Two of the numbers matched the FBI's records of the purchases involved in the investigation. All of which was going on two states away. John was off the hook of going to prison for being a terrorist, but now he was a victim of identity theft.

Most people don't know they have become a victim until something happens.

You might not find yourself in the fictitious John Doe saga, but identity theft could be a result of terrorist activity done undercover. The majority of people who discover they have had their identity stolen have no idea at all, until they apply for a loan or a new credit card and get denied. It is important to check your credit report, at least every couple of months to make sure nothing is on there that is not your own doing.

Credit monitoring services are an excellent consumer aid.

The credit bureau checks your credit files 365 days a year for you, and notifies you by email right away of any changes. Don't spend several evenings a month trying to decipher your credit reports. Monitoring service makes the process effortless and leaves your time off for better uses.