It seems like every time you call up your phone or credit card company somebody's asking you to hand over your Social Security number, but in an age of rampant identity theft, who wants to hand out their precious SSN when you don't really have to? According to a TIME article: Requests to provide our Social Security numbers have become so common that many people just assume they have no choice but to hand it over. That's actually not true, but having that knowledge is only half the battle. The real challenge is convincing the people who automatically request such information that you really don't have to give it to them.According to the article, some companies (like Verizon) will take two forms of picture ID instead of your SSN, even though getting to that point may be a pain. For more, check out this detailed guide to The Sound Money Tips weblog says that rather than avoiding online shopping for fear of identity theft, shoppers should get used to using virtual credit cards, aka substitute credit cards or controlled payment numbers.
Here's how they work. You sign up for the program (

The Unclutterer weblog knows that the best part of decluttering your desktop is tossing your sensitive, unneeded paper trail into the jaws of a good paper shredder. But before you get too shred-happy, you need to know what to shred, when it can be shredded, and what you should actually keep. For example:

Shred Now:

• Credit card applications
• Expired credit cards, bank cards, passports, visas, and identification cards (college, military, employee badges, etc.)

Aside from the "Shred Now" list, Unclutterer highlights the documents you should shred on a monthly, yearly, and 7-10 year basis, along with those docs you should never shred (like birth/marriage/divorce/death certificates). If you're a shred junkie, share your best shredding practices and techniques in the comments. — Adam Pash

The Get Rich Slowly weblog reports that Office Depot has a free offer going on tomorrow, Saturday, April 28th:

Shred-it, the world's leading on site document destruction company and Crime Stoppers USA will bring their expertise to Office Depot stores to help people take action against identity theft and fraud. Shred-it mobile shredding trucks will be on site and consumers are invited to bring all the documents they can carry for shredding.

Sounds like a good time for a post-taxes financial records purge. See also

The Credit Score Tips & Advice weblog points out 8 steps you should take in the event that your identity is stolen.

Identity theft is certainly a terrifying prospect - one that no one really wants to think about - but in the unfortunate event that your identity is stolen, these 8 steps look like a good starting point to getting your life back. As several of this post's commenters point out, nothing you do guarantees you can get everything back to normal if your identity is stolen. However, these 8 tips will at least give you a good place to start.

Check out our sister site, Consumerist, for another first hand account of identity theft fixing. If you want to do all you can to protect yourself against identity theft, we've covered that territor