Everyone’s at risk of identity theft, but people ages 18 to 24, at the greatest risk.

Identity theft happens when someone steals your name, address or other personal information and uses it for their financial gain. Basically, they become you!

So why are millennials more at risk? They:

• Take longer (an average of 132 days) to detect fraudulent activity on their credit cards, bank account, etc. As a result their info is compromised for a longer period of time.
• Don’t protect themselves enough. They share information too trustingly, including their bank cards at dive bars and other locations where they should really pay cash.

While common methods of thievery still exist (like stealing wallets an credit cards), criminals are getting high tech in their pilfering methods. The most common include:

• Phishing: emails direct a victim to fake websites that mimic officials entities, including banks.
• Smishing: text messages bait a victim to download malicious spyware.
• Pharming: malicious code on computers send victims to bogus websites.
• Keylogging: hidden software monitors victims’ keystrokes to collect passwords.

These methods are harder to detect as victims are left unable to explain how their identities were stolen. As a result, only half file police reports.

Experts think social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace may also be to blame, since 72% of millennials use the sites daily, compared with 40% of older adults.

The problem is that young people share personal info about themselves like birth dates and pictures, without realizing that all a thief needs is a little info about you such as your driver's license, checking account or credit card number, Social Security number or even just your wireless phone.

What can you do?

Learn how to protect your identity and share these tips with your friends!

• Restrict access to your page to a select group, like your friends from school, your community groups, or your family.
• Keep your information to yourself. Don’t post your full name, Social Security number, address, phone number, or bank and credit card account numbers — and don’t post other people’s information, either.
• Don’t post info that could be used to identify you, i.e. the name of your school, sports team, clubs, and where you work or hang out.
• Make sure your screen name doesn’t say too much about you. Don’t use your name, your age, or your hometown.
• Remember that once you post information online, you can’t take it back. Even if you delete the information from a site, older versions exist on other people’s computers.