Emphasis Preaching Journal

According to the General Accounting Office, identity theft has grown rapidly. Although there is no firm estimate of how many Americans have been victimized, VISA and MasterCard have reported that overall fraud losses rose from about $700 million in 1996 to $1 billion in 2000. All someone needs to do to steal your identity is to obtain your current and former addresses, birth date and Social Security number. They often get that information from stolen wallets or by taking a person's mail or by sifting through their trash.