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"When I went online to check my credit card balance, I knew I had a payment coming up, and I saw around $4,000 worth of computers bought," Prestage said.
Identity theft is on the rise, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). An FTC report stated that 12.7 percent of 4,057 participants said they had discovered the misuse of their personal information within the past five years.
The number of ID theft victims who reported discovering the misuse of their personal information between one and two years ago was almost double that for the period two to three years ago.
Prestage said she cancelled the credit card right away, but was still very concerned about the situation.
"My first thought was that my credit card number was stolen, but it turned out, according to the credit card company, that it was my entire identity that had been stolen because my mail (had been) rerouted to Kentucky," Prestage said.
Many precautions can be taken to prevent identity theft, including the proper destruction of bank statements and being cautious of telephone solicitation.
"Proactively monitoring your online banking is a great way to prevent identity theft," said Betty Riess, a representative for Bank of America.
Causes of identity theft can be difficult to track after the identity is already stolen, but being aware of common causes is the first step to prevention, Riess said.
Thieves sometimes steal information from people through e-mail or phone by posing as legitimate companies and claiming they have a problem with people's accounts. This practice is known as "phishing" online, or pretexting by phone, according to the FTC.
Other common methods of stealing identities include the conventional theft of wallets or purses, going through trash for personal information or hacking into business records. Telephone solicitors sometimes call offering special deals to obtain personal financial information.
"The saving of passwords and other personal financial information on computers you don't normally use are common ways identities are stolen by hackers," Riess said.
Prestage said she feels lucky to have caught the theft so early.
"I had been checking my online activity frequently, around a couple times a week, which worked out in my favor because they didn't have a chance to open up any other credit cards using my Social Security number," Prestage said. "By the time I caught it and reported it to the credit bureaus, they went ahead and flagged my Social Security number so they couldn't open anything else."
The recent break-in of more than 96,000 NEO accounts at Texas A&M had many students worried about identity theft. Allan Baron, a sergeant in the University Police Crime Prevention division, said people concerned that their identities have been stolen can contact a reputable credit bureau such as Equifax, Experian or Transunion for a free credit report.
Baron was not able to comment on the NEO account break-in because the case is still under investigation.
The University of Texas-Arlington's database was hacked into after two computers were stolen from a faculty member's home on Oct. 12, 2006. Approximately 2,500 of the college's students' personal information, such as Social Security numbers, grades and e-mail addresses were stolen, the Associated Press reported. Ian Fairley, a 19-year-old student at UT-Arlington, had his identity stolen shortly after the break-in.
"Like any person, my first worry was my money, and then my credit card," Fairley said. "I thought all my money was going to be taken and my credit card used so much that my credit score would be ruined for years to come. I got a letter in the mail from a law firm outlining the charges against me for fraudulent checks being written."
Fairley said he didn't lose any money, but the first step he took was to cancel all the fraudulent accounts in his name and put an alert on his existing accounts to watch out for any suspicious activity. Once the thieves have the person's information, they can open new accounts and write false checks, file for bankruptcy to avoid paying debts or buy a car using the person's information for the loan, according to the FTC.
Prestage said she was concerned about the theft, and she thought it might affect her when trying to buy a house five years later.
"First of all, I called the merchants where some of the things were charged to let them know that if the items haven't been shipped not to ship them," she said. "Then I got a hold of the credit card company and I cancelled the account. They referred me to their identity theft solutions department and they notified the three major credit bureaus of my Social Security number. I had to call Social Security to let them know that my Social had been compromised."
Prestage said that based on the information she received from the credit card company, identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States.
The FTC advises that if identity theft is suspected, the first step is to close accounts that might have been tampered with or opened fraudulently. People who suspect identity theft should then file a complaint with the FTC, as well as filing a report with the local police department where the identity theft took place.
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