According to recent studies, up to 7,000,000 people become identity theft victims each year, in United States alone. That's over 19,000 cases a day, or 799 cases an hour. Whichever way you look at it, these are shocking figures. And with more and more people using Internet, online banking, and other hi-tech services, things aren't likely to improve any time soon.

In fact, another research, a survey conducted on behalf of Federal Trade Commission recently, tells us that situation is even worse. According to FTC survey report, 4.6% of US population were identity fraud victims last year - that's 10 million people.

According to FTC figures, if someone fraudulently opens a new credit card or another loan account under your name, on average you can expect dollar amount to go to about $10,200. That's just an average amount.

To clean up your name, and your credit rating, you will need to deal with this experience. You can expect to spend between $500 and $1,200 of your own hard-earned money cleaning up mess. You can also expect to invest between 30 and 60 hours of your time.

The above figures are just cold statistics. They say nothing about emotional trauma, through which you are likely to go when it happens to you. It's all very well to read and hear about bad things that happen to other people. It is quite different when same thing happens to you, or your loved one.

Is there anything you can do in order to protect yourself? There is. Quite a bit actually. It's all based on common sense and, while there are no guarantees in life, you will minimise risk and make life of an identity thief a lot harder.

Funny thing about thieves. They don't like working hard. If you make it hard enough for them, they will usually go away - to find an easier target.

No wonder Internet business generated $301 billion in revenue last year, by a University of Texas estimate.

If you compare shopping online to offline you would think as far as security goes, it would favor offline shopping, right? Not really.

In years past, shoppers were more reluctant to do their shopping online – now things have changed greatly. And that confidence in consumers directly reflects enormous growth of online sales.

I have a friend who took his wife out for a romantic evening to a local restaurant. The last place you would expect credit card fraud to happen. By time he noticed they had charged him double amount for their dinner, it was too late to go back to restaurant. He rang me and we concluded that it must be a mistake. It was later that we found out that restaurant owner’s reputation was a bit shaky. Apparently he frequently overcharged customers in hope they wouldn’t notice.

I don’t know. It’s a funny world we live in.

Does this mean internet is safe? Relatively yes, but don’t forget, Internet is an open field and there are some bad elements out there. We have been shopping online for years. We never had a problem with credit card fraud on Internet. But then again, we always take precautions. From this point forward, you will see 10 checkpoints online merchants have to pass to secure our business... Will your credit card details be safe?

Reputable companies online know that one of things preventing customers from placing orders with them is customers not been sure whether their credit card details will be safe. Responsible companies have taken this concern onboard and have set up their systems to provide customer with maximum security.

How would you know if you are entering your payment details on a secure page?

You should see a picture of a lock on bottom right hand side of your screen. This lock will appear on page that you fill in when ordering and ensures that your name, address and credit card information is being sent to online store through encrypted code. This encrypted code means that a hacker will not be able to steal your credit card information. Does online store value your privacy and confidentiality?

Prior to internet days, when I used to order something from a mail order company, mysteriously I would be sent advertising from companies that I hadn’t done business with. Back then I didn’t know that companies sold your personal information for advertising purposes to other companies.

Receiving junk mail was annoying but because of cost involved, it didn’t happen constantly. Imagine now if you do business online with a company that doesn’t respect your privacy and sells your email address.

Next time you open your email software, you are bombarded with emails ranging from a dozen to hundreds. Now that’s not annoying – it’s intolerable.

So moral of story here, make sure your email address won’t be sold. Ensure online store has a privacy statement which would state they will maintain your personal details in strictest privacy and confidentiality. Does online store have contact details?