Identity theft fraud is the fastest growing crime in Britain and costs £1.7Bn every year. Caution is highly recommended; keeping your SSN or credit card details confidential; observing good information security practices such as keeping personal information in a secure location and the proper disposal of documents which contain personal details can help prevent against this. Also, be vigilant whenever you use your card to pay for anything; ‘skimming’, whereby they take a copy of your card details, can be very easy and quick to do, so be aware whenever you hand over your card at a checkout and always keep it in sight. There have been a number of cases where ATM machines have had skimming devices attached to them (in one case they went so far as to attach an entire new replica front to a machine, which was only spotted as regular user noticed the machine stuck out further than normal), so look for any anything unusual when using these machines and if anything seems suspicious contact the bank and use a different machine. In terms of a service which can prevent fraud, there are a number of services which are costly and are mostly reactive rather than proactive, meaning there is no better (and cheaper) protection than being cautious and secure with any personal information.