Identity theft is a serious problem, and in today’s floundering economy, it’s bound to grow worse in the coming days.

During a session dealing with an attempted online identity theft of a Daily Press staff member, it was revealed that Oklahoma has the eighth-highest rate of identity theft of any state in the country. Those statistics aren’t good, but they serve to remind us we have to stay on our toes.

That means being careful about giving out our personal information, like Social Security numbers, our mothers’ maiden names, employer details.

It also means making sure any Web sites we access for credit or financial purposes are secure. But even when sites are secure, we’re trusting that the people at the other end of our transaction are honest – and that’s not always the case.

The ability to obtain credit is extremely critical these days, as many people who can’t get it are finding out.

Folks who established their credit during better times must do everything they can to guard it.

The first step is to get a credit report on yourself – and your spouse, if you have one. You are entitled to a free report every 12 months by law. You can get a report from each of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies – Experian, Transunion and Equifax – through one of the commercial entities like freecreditreport.com. However, you may have to promise to purchase some sort of credit protection to get it, and although you can cancel at anytime, many people forget to do so.

A better route might be annualcreditreport.com, established by the three major firms through government mandate. It’s a little confusing, but if you read the instructions carefully, you can obtain all three of your credit reports.You probably won’t get your credit “score” without paying for it, but you don’t need that to protect yourself from fraud – only to see if your credit is “good.”

Close scrutiny of your report should reveal if anyone’s tried to access your credit in recent days.

You can also take note of any “credit” listed on your report that you don’t remember applying for. That could be a sign that someone else has “stolen” your identity and established credit in your name.

If you believe someone’s made a grab for your credit, you can request a “fraud alert” be placed on your file for 90 days (or longer, but you’ll need to fill out a report with a law enforcement agency for that). The alert can be requested through any one of the three major companies; the one you choose will notify the other two.

This can be done at no cost. Although it might make obtaining “new” credit more difficult for you during the 90 days, it’s worth the hassle to safeguard the credit you already have.

And you might consider paying someone to monitor your credit officially after that. Shop around with your credit cards and banks and find out who offers the best rate for monitoring. You might get it for as low as $3 per month, up to as high as $20 per month.

For some people, the extra security is worth it. Having your identity stolen can ruin more than your credit; it can ruin your life.