The problem that most Americans face in today's society is identity theft. Stolen identity can ruin the lives of every citizen in the United States and foreign countries. According to Ballard, a journalist, who credits the Federal Trade Commission for identifying identity theft as the number one consumer complaint (21). Out of ten million people, there will be one who has been a victim of identity theft. At birth, your child is assigned a Social Security number to distinguish him or her from other children. In fact, your Social Security number is the primary target of identity theft. In every country, a person's credit gets damaged due to identity theft. Americans must protect their personal information from the world because an identity thief is waiting on their doorstep to be welcomed. If we want to eliminate the problem, we should do credit checks every year, destroy important documents and store account passwords in a secure environment. safe place. One possible solution to preventing identity theft includes performing a credit check every year. Running a credit check through the credit bureaus annually will safeguard a person's identity. According to Dr. Sovern, a law professor at St. John's University, "consumers should file a complaint against creditors and credit bureaus for including identity thieves' transactions in impersonated consumer reports (233)." This would give the credit industry – the entity that can avoid losses at the lowest cost – an incentive to take measures to prevent identity theft. There are three credit bureaus Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union (Ballard 21). Individuals with established credit should consider the following three credit bureaus because bad credit doesn't look good... middle of the paper... we're watching to see who their next suspect will be. Identity theft can be prevented, but humans must act by protecting what is theirs, their credit. Works Cited Ballard, Scotty. “How to prevent identity theft. Jet 103.13 (2003): 15. MasterFILE Premier EBSCO.Web.July 19, 2011.Romano, Andrew. “IDENTITY CRISIS. (Cover article).” Newsweek 146.1 (2005): 44-45. Professional and career collection. EBSCO. Network. 19 July 2011. “HOW TO AVOID BECOMING A VICTIM OF IDENTITY THEFT.” Ebony 58.6 (2003): 32. MasterFILE Premier.EBSCO.Web. July 21, 2011. “How to Protect Yourself from Identity Thieves.” Consumers' Research Journal 86.2 (2003): 22. MasterFILE Premier.EBSCO.Web. July 19, 2011.Sovern,Jeff. “Stop identity theft.” Journal of Consumer Affairs 38.2 (2004): 233-243. Premier of academic research. EBSCO.Web. July 27 2011.