Eat, drink and be merry, shop till you drop, deck the hall with boughs of holly, party all night...

...whatever you enjoy doing at Christmas and especially in light of the recent Customs data loss cock up, it's a time of year that offers major opportunities for ID fraudsters to steal your identity.

We have probably all heard the phrase "identity fraud" a lot recently, but what does it mean?

Identity fraud takes place when a criminal manages to steal enough of your personal data (from your full name and address to bank or card statements, PINs and passwords and even information that could help them to guess your favourite passwords) to impersonate you.

They can then do anything from running up debts in your name to applying for benefits or using your ID as a cover for organised crime, such as drug dealing and money laundering. Unsurprisingly, it is one of Britain's fastest-growing crimes; so keep your ID under wraps this year, with our simple guide to the festive season whilst...

...at the shops

• When you hit the High Street or the mall, make sure you keep your wallet or purse safe. Zip them away safely every time you use them, or pick-pockets could help themselves to a present of their own.

• Leave anything you don't need at home in a safe place. Your driving licence or passport would be a gift to a fraudster but even a letter with so much as your name and address could help them to apply for credit in your name.

• Need to make an extra trip to the cash machine? Britain is the card fraud hotspot of Europe, so make sure that the machine hasn't been tampered with, no spy cameras have been placed on it and nobody can shoulder-surf your PIN. Always cover your hand as you enter your PIN number or make sure you are looking behind you.

• Drinks, dinners and parties are all prime social hotspots at Christmas and they are also prime opportunities for thieves, so never leave your jacket or handbag unattended. Get a friend to mind it or dance round it if there's no alternative! You may feel silly but that's better than losing your belongings and your ID!

• Don't put your credit card behind the bar and don't let it out of sight when you're paying. If a waiter or bartender vanishes with your credit card for a long time, he or she could be copying the account data and planning a spending spree at your expense.

• You're vulnerable during the journeys to and from the spate of Christmas parties, especially if you've had a few drinks. Try to travel in company and remind each other not to leave anything behind in the bus, train, underground or taxi.

• You may be frantic to tidy your home before Mum, Dad and the rest of the family arrive but never throw away anything that could be used to steal your ID. A bank or credit card statement is a gift to a thief but almost anything, from a letter to a catalogue, can be enough for them to apply for credit in your name. Don't think that shoving everything in with the left-overs in a smelly dustbin will deter criminals; there are now specialist bin-raiders who prey on rubbish.

• Buy yourself a shredder and get into the habit of using it. You can get them from as little as £10 at Argos and Currys. As a rule of thumb, you should never throw out anything showing your full name, address, date of birth or anything that includes financial information.

• Contact the Post Office immediately if your usual Christmas cards, or any other mail fails to arrive. Don't put it down to the Christmas rush. According to Experian's Victim's of Fraud service, the most common way to steal identities in this country is to intercept your post. Even a piece of direct mail can be enough for a fraudster to take over your life.

Some say it's an evil tool and you should not share any personal information on it, much less actually buy anything! Others think that so long as you know what security measure to take, it makes shopping easier and saves you trudging round the shops.

• In cyberspace, you can't check out a shop-front or look at the goods, so always choose a reputable web site that gives contact details on the site. If in doubt, call or write to check them out. Remember, a bargain that seems too good to be true might well be too good to be true...

• Only use your credit or debit card at sites that offer secure payments - look for https in the URL, where the s stands for secure, or a closed padlock symbol on the payment page. Also look out for web pages that use Thawte or VeriSign symbols; again these are indications that the page is secure for payments.

• Another option is to sign up for the Verified by Visa and Verified by MasterCard services that allow you to register your card and personal details on a remote, secure server, so the online merchant never sees them.

• Minimise the information you post on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Over the festive season, it may be tempting to post updates on these sites about parties and events you are planning to attend. Organised gangs are now focusing on ID fraud as a profit centre and they know that many people give away useful snippets that could be passwords giving them access to your bank and card accounts.

• Sign up for an online credit monitoring and identity fraud protection service, such as CreditExpert from Experian. This allows you to see your credit report as often as you like and alerts you by text or e-mail whenever there is a significant change that could indicate an attempted identity fraud. It is such an effective precaution against ID fraud that it's recommended by the Home Office.

• Your credit report lists all your credit, such as cards, loans, mortgages and even mobile phone and catalogue accounts, so you can see at a glance if someone has been applying for money or setting up new accounts in your name. That means you can stop problems before they develop into something serious.

Hopefully, if you follow some of our simple steps, you wil be able to keep at least one thing secret this Christmas; your identity!

Data loss fraud; who should pay up?

Source: Credit Expert/Experian