Hollywood has presented us with a number of pictures on just how scary a scenario identity theft can be. I remember how scary a picture the movie "The Net" painted and that was even before our life became that much more digital, online and some say exposed. I once encountered a situation of a stolen credit card and was fortunate enough to take care of it early on so no serious damage was done. The real problems begin when someone steals you identity without you finding out for a while. They can easily issue loans on your name and leave you with a pile of debt. But there are ways to prevent identity theft such as the constant monitoring service offered by lifelock. They will report any activity in your credit file so you can track and discover anything that hasn't been performed by you.