37 million Americans have had their identity robbed from them and most of their sensitive information was gain from the computer. The numbers are still rising, it's the biggest fear faced by every computer owner. Some hacker, or even worse, a trusted friend or co-worker that has access to your computer starts checking every move you've made online. This can be done very easily, someone doesn't even have to possess much in the way of technical expertise. At best, they could discover information about you that you would rather not have made public. At worst, they could make your life a living hell by stealing your identity or emptying your bank account. There are some very good free Internet PC privacy software tools that will help you guard against having your life ruined by an Internet hacker or cyber criminal.

You might be under the impression that all you have to do to be safe online is to save any sensitive information to a disk and delete the file from your hard drive. Unfortunately, this doesn't completely remove the files from your computer. All it takes is someone with basic file restoration program to go in and recapture everything you thought you had erased forever. The Internet can provide you with a world of information, you can conduct business, do your shopping or whatever. But, it's also a most dangerous place for identity theft, cyber criminals are lurking every where to gain access to your (name, social security numbers, credit cards, etc), don't become a victim because of poor software protection.

Identity Theft prevention tips below:

1. If you encounter an unsolicited e-mail that asks you, either directly, or through a web site, for personal financial or identity information, such as Social Security number, passwords, or other identifiers, exercise extreme caution.

2. If you need to update your information online, use the normal process you've used before, or open a new browser window and type in the website address of the legitimate company's account maintenance page.

3. If a website address is unfamiliar, it's probably not real. Only use the address that you have used before, or start at your normal homepage.

4. Always report fraudulent or suspicious e-mail to your ISP. Reporting instances of spoof web sites will help get these bogus web sites shut down before they can do any more harm.

5. Most companies require you to log in to a secure site. Look for the lock at the bottom of your browser and "https" in front of the website address.

6. Take note of the header address on the web site. Most legitimate sites will have a relatively short internet address that usually depicts the business name followed by ".com," or possibly ".org." Spoof sites are more likely to have an excessively long strong of characters in the header, with the legitimate business name somewhere in the string, or possibly not at all.

7. If you have any doubts about an e-mail or website, contact the legitimate company directly. Make a copy of the questionable web site's URL address, send it to the legitimate business and ask if the request is legitimate.

8. If you've been victimized by a spoofed e-mail or web site, you should contact your local police or sheriff's department, and file a complaint report.

9. Watch out for phishing scams, as well as spyware, adware and other computer viruses.

Protecting your identity is a 24/7 hour job, you can't relax on it - don't wait until your identity is stolen before you do something about it!