You'll never hear the end of it if you decide to press charges. And besides you're not even sure you really want to do that. They might pay you back the money. Not. The burden is on you to sort this mess out and the worst part is once a relative or friend steals your identity, it's almost impossible to trust them again.

We hear about the high profile cases of hackers breaking into the databases of Lexis Nexus or DSW Shoe warehouse, yet most instances of identity theft never make the news.

Not too long ago, a friend of mine mentioned that one of his coworkers recently recovered his stolen identity. I asked how long the process took. "Only two years" he replied.

Compared to my business partner's six year nightmare "only" maybe appropriate but like most victims of identity theft, he probably thought "when". As in, "when will I get my life back?"

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer nonprofit organization, reported that victims spend on average 175 hours trying to recover their identity, often over a period of years.

His hard earned money? Gone. Creditors on his back everyday. The cops knocking on his door. His family strained to the breaking point. He didn't do anything wrong but my business partner's life got turned upside down afew years back. He became a victim of what is now the fastest growing crime in the world. Identity theft.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, since 1999 over 27 million people in the US alone became victims of this epidemic 10 million more last year.

Will we ever get a break? Not right now .In San Diego, police arrested a postal worker for stealing mail and trading it to identity thieves to support his drug habit.

Another arrest involved the hacking of wireless carrier T-MobileUSA's network. According to Fox News, the attacker gained access to a database of 16 million customers including the personel information of the Secret Service agent investigating the break in.

Of course there's always going to be competition. That's the world we live in. However that only means you have to play the game a little smarter than the other person or persons. Here's some helpful tips for your online business.

1. Offer free original content. It's important to give
your visitors information they can't find anywhere
else.

I received an e-mail message from "Paypal" not to long ago. The e-mail stated that PayPal needed me to update and verify my security information for their database. I didn't. One of the sentences in the e-mail read:

"Complete the necessary verification tasks within 5 days, or your account might get temporarily suspended."

That didn't sound like the PayPal I've been doing business with for several years.

No doubt you've heard about it. No it's not new but it still works and works powerfully.

Viral marketing starts out as a direct action you take and can continue to grow with or without any effort on your part.

Viral marketing is a large number of people promoting one web site so they can all receive the traffic generated by each other.

Congratulations, you've finally finished your ad copy. You've gotten feedback and it all looks good. Now do something to make your copy even better. For instance? Well...

1. Use a hand written letter on your ad copy instead
of text. Write the ad on a piece of paper, scan it and
publish the ad on your web page. Adding a personal
touch will always increase your sales.

Not too long ago, a friend of mine mentioned that one of his coworkers recently recovered his stolen identity. I asked how long the process took. "Only two years" he replied.

Compared to my business partner's six year nightmare "only" maybe appropriate but like most victims of identity theft, he probably thought "when". As in, "when will I get my life back?"

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer nonprofit organization, reported that victims spend on average 175 hours trying to recover their identity, often over a period of years.

"I got bad credit I'm not worried"
"It happened to a friend of a friend"
"I've got other priorities now"
"All it takes is guarding your Social Security number"
"I can trust the people around me"

These quotes are all too common regarding identity theft. The problem is the Federal Trade Commission, various law enforcement agencies and identity theft experts have stated there are no 100% guarantees and the numbers for identity theft keep getting worse

"I got bad credit so I'm not worried"

Just recently KFLY TV in Lafayette Louisiana reported that 2 men were arrested for stealing the identity of 2500 people.