The identity theft scams are the fastest growing crime. The victims financial situation gets severely hurt because of such frauds. For individuals, following are the ways to prevent it happening :--

1. Never give personal information to any person on the internet, mail or over the phone. Maintaining secrecy about the personal information is the best way to prevent identity theft.

2. Always ensure that you check out the accuracy of your credit card statements, bank statements etc. Also make sure that you check your report from three major credit bureaus at least twice a year.

3. You should be careful when your bills usually arrive every month & when you receive them, check out them carefully to know if there is any variation or differences.

4. Normally people make mistake by using common number like birth date or the last digits of your social security number or your ATM password. 

5. There are instances that your employer, financial institution etc. may need your social security number for identification and tax reporting. So always be careful while giving it out to anybody else.

6. Secrecy is the best way to protect yourself against the identity theft. One must be very careful while paying by credit card.

Self protection is the best way of keeping yourself away from fraud.