 TITLE: What Is an Identity Theft Affidavit? CONTENT: How to Prevent Identity Theft\n-----------------------------\nUnfortunately, you can't always prevent identity theft. With so much personal information being exchanged, and so much data falling into the hands of fraudsters, the risk of identity theft is greater than ever.\nThe first step to protecting yourself is being cautious about when and with whom you share your personal data. The less of your information that is out there, the lower the chances a fraudster gets their hands on your data. Stay away from shady websites and links and create secure passwords to make it harder for anyone to hack your accounts; take note of whether site or link URLs contain \"https,\" which indicates that the site is secure.\nUsing a credit monitoring service can help you notice identity theft or fraud as soon as possible. Credit monitoring will alert you of changes to your credit reports, which can tip you off about suspicious activity. If a new account appears in your credit file, or you see that one of your accounts has an inaccurate balance, this could be due to a fraudster obtaining your personal information.\nBy alerting you to these changes, credit monitoring enables you to act quickly to resolve any fraud that occurs. You can get free credit monitoring from Experian. END