This is not about eBay or fishing emails, or key-loggers or trojans, this is about something more invasive and much more difficult to control. I was a victim of the TJ Maxx data breach 2005-2006. Of the 45 million debit and credit card numbers stolen, two of them belonged to me. One sunny Saturday morning about a year ago, I was at Home Depot and my debit card was refused on a $4.59 purchase, she ran it twice, I re-entered the pin, rejected again. I knew I had over $400 in the account at the time. I wrote them a check from the same account, which they accepted without question. I left with my purchase, feeling confused. I tried the debit card again at the gas station, just to test it and quickly handed them a credit card when it didn’t work as I rarely carry cash. I was on edge the rest of the weekend. A Monday morning phone call to the bank told me that my card number had been stolen and they’d shut it down with no notice to protect my account. I got the notice later that week as well as a replacement debit card. That same night I pulled up the credit card I use online to find out I had several purchases I didn’t remember making. I called the card holder, Bank of America, customer service was nice but not worried, when I mentioned what happened to my debit card and TJ Maxx, they transferred me to the fraud department, within minutes, my card was shut down, including web access, they went through all the transactions with me and removed the ones that weren’t mine. Again, the card was replaced the following week. While I didn’t lose money, I did lose time and have an innate fear of identity theft. I run Anti-Virus, Anti-spam, clean my computer, and change passwords regularly. I shred everything with my information on it. Now when I shop, I cover my card numbers with my hand as I run it through the as I don’t know who may be watching with a camera phone in hand. But when it comes down to it, my identity is not solely in my control and the world has some very bad people out there.