There's no surefire way to protect yourself from online identity theft, but there are steps you can take to minimize the risk of becoming a victim.

Identity theft is not a problem until it happens to you and any victim can tell you it is no laughing matter. Some people believe that identity theft will never happen to them. But if you don't take steps to protect your personal information when you go online, you could be telling your own story of identity theft.

So what are the best ways to prevent identity theft? While you probably can't prevent identity theft entirely, you can minimize your risk.

The more you understand how a criminal steals an identity, the better chance you have to protect yourself from online identity theft. While nothing is ever foolproof, here are a few things that you can do to protect yourself from online identity theft.

Don't use the same password on all of your online accounts. A thief can financially wipe you out very quickly with a single password that works on every account you have.

Keep all of your passwords as confidential as possible. Banks or financial institutions never email you and ask you to log into your account and verify your password. This common online scam costs victims millions of dollars each year and you should be aware it so it doesn't happen to you.

Another way to protect yourself from online identity theft is never store your passwords, Social Security number or account PIN numbers in your computer. If your computer picks up a spyware virus, a hacker has everything he needs to steal your identity as well as all of your money.

Ninety percent of all computers are infected with spyware. Most computer users have no idea why or how they got it but it makes your online security extremely vulnerable. Spyware protection software is very reasonably priced and is just as important as anti virus software.

Other ways to protect yourself from online identity theft include all transactions you make on the Internet. Before you make an online purchase with your credit card, make sure that the site has a secure and encrypted page. Secure pages begin with https instead of http, and a picture of a small gold lock is displayed in the lower right part of your screen.

To verify the name of the server that appears on the digital certificate, double click the gold lock icon, and check the name that appears next to "Issued to". If the name appearing next to "Issued to" is different from the name of the site that you are giving your credit card number to, leave the site because it is not secure.

Currently more than 1000 law enforcement agencies have direct online access to almost 700 000 identity theft complaints. Identity theft is quickly becoming the Internets worst security nightmare.

Hopefully these few tips will stop you from becoming another victim of this horrible crime. If you want to protect yourself from online identity theft, your best defense is prevention.