If you have watched the news for any length of time recently, you are very aware that identity theft is a huge problem. In fact, you have probably been a victim or know someone who has been victimized. I can say that quite confidently because according the U.S. Postmaster General, there were over 12 million cases of identity theft recorded. While many consumers know the problems exist, very few have a clear understanding of what these identity thieves do to gain access to your personal information.

Misconception # 1 All Identity Thieves Are Men This is a common misconception that our identity thief says makes her job so much easier. The problem is that most of the major media outlets portray identity thieves as men. The reality is that many of these criminals are well dressed attractive women. To avoid falling into a trap, watch your personal information with both men and women. Studies have shown that both men and women let their guards down around women more so than they do around men. Everyone is a potential identity thief. This does not mean you should be paranoid rather you should simply be very careful.

Misconception # 2 Relaxing Your Guard While Shopping or Eating Out This one is hard to overcome because in our society, we have grown use to not carry cash. It's simple and easy to hand over our credit or debit card to a waitress or cashiers to pay our bills. The problem is regardless of where you are or how nice the neighborhood is, you have just handed your personal information to a total stranger. You totally trust this person to only use that information for this transaction. What you don't know is that it is so very easy to steal your credit card information, store it on another card, and have it back to you in less than a few moments and you'll never know until you get the bill. To combat this, regularly look at your statements and begin to keep a daily spending journal and immediately respond to any discrepancies.

If you are really serious about this, you might want to establish an expenditure limit on your credit card. This would allow the credit card company to alert you whenever a transaction occurs over a certain dollar figure. This is very helpful because if you are like me, you use your debit or credit card for everything and tracking each minor expense would be very tedious.

Misconception # 3 Throwing Away My Credit Offers Immediately Protects Me Can I be very honest with you? Many of these credit card companies could care less if you have your identity stolen. Part of the reason is because they will make it incredibly difficult for you to restore your good name and in some cases require you to furnish proof that even Perry Mason or Matlock could not locate. The bottom line is if you are serious about protecting your identity, you should shred your documents before throwing them away. You should also separate the contents of the items and toss them in different trash bins. I would also encourage you to shred the reply envelopes as well. You can never be too safe.

Always remember that one man's trash is another man's treasure. These crooks do not play fair. Consider this, you can spend a few minutes taking these precautions or you can spend a few months and in some cases years fighting to restore your credit and your good name.

Idea: You might also try running water over your personal mail before you trash it so that it becomes totally unreadable to potential thieves. Why would a thief waste time with your wet smudged mail when your neighbor's mail is so much easier for them to steal?

Misconception # 4 Using Your Home to Receive and Deliver Mail I'll keep this one short, because it is so very clear. By putting your outgoing mail or incoming mail in an unattended mailbox, you are exposing your personal information to potential thieves. You must stop this at once.

Here is a simple tip. First, drop all of your outgoing mail in a local United States Postal Service mailbox. Second, consider opening a P.O. Box. I know this seems inconvenient but to truly protect yourself, these are some of the preventative measures you must take to win the fight against identity theft. The real problem is that there are so many opportunities to become a victim; you really need 24 hour protection.

After learning everything mentioned above, I thought to myself, how anyone can do this alone. These thieves are getting smarter and more sophisticated everyday. It seems almost impossible to keep up. Years ago, I often wished that there was someway to ensure that my family would be safe. Today, there are finally companies that specialize in protecting consumers like us.

When selecting a service to monitor and proactively protect your credit, make sure they have been recommended by over and over by top law enforcement personnel and their service has been proven to work in real world situations.