How could someone steal my identity

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 A criminal can use various methods to obtain your personal information. Criminals with no technical skills at all can steal or obtain information from mail in your mailbox or trash, especially if the mail includes a new credit card or preapproved applications for credit. Crackers attempt to break into bank, credit-card company, and merchant computer systems via the Internet and obtain lists of account numbers and other personal data. Crackers can then either use that data themselves or sell it to third parties for use in identity theft schemes. Criminals sometimes get vital information directly from the source by asking you for personal information over the phone or via email.
 
 Some online crooks are skilled at spoofing (forging) email messages and Web sites to make them look as if they are legitimate. If you provide personal information in response to a spoofed email message or Web site, then you have given your data to a criminal. A recent spoofing trend, known as phishing, involves email messages that look exactly as if they've come from legitimate sources, such as Best Buy and eBay, but in fact they've come from criminals intent on finding consumer information useful for identity theft. Also pay close attention to Web site addresses to make sure they are spelled correctly, as fraudulent sites typically use addresses that look similar to legitimate sites.