Identity theft that involves accessing someone's credit card accounts without their authorization is one of the most common forms identity theft takes. This has to do with the volume of individuals who apply for credit cards over the internet as well as the high number of credit cards the average person in the United States has.

While anyone can fall victim to this unfortunate fate, those in the various branches of the military seem to be more at risk. This is because they may be out of the country for extended lengths of time while someone else is racking up charges on their credit cards. They tend to move around often as well so the change of address isn't a red flag to the credit card company.

Some credit card companies will eat the cost of identity theft but the original owner of the card has to jump through a variety of hoops to verify they didn't complete the transaction themselves or allow someone else to do so. The process of clearing up issues involving identity theft of credit cards can take years. It is also quite expensive and in the mean time you can be dealing with creditors and collection agencies wanting money to be paid on the accounts.

It is important to carefully monitor your credit card activities and to look over your statements each month. You should be careful of the number of credit card accounts you have open as well as the credit limits. The more credit the cards have available the more damage that can be done.

You also have to be careful who you give your credit card numbers to online. They may not be a legitimate company and instead of getting the merchandise you ordered they may be using your credit card number to buy plenty of items that they will have shipped somewhere else and then resell before you even know what took place.