You may fall prey to a nonviolent but frightening and fast-growing crime: identity theft.

It happens to at least 500,000 new victims each year, according to government figures. And it happens very easily because every identification number you have Social Security, credit card, driver's license, telephone "is a key that unlocks some storage of money or goods," says a fraud program manager of the US Postal Service. "So if you throw away your credit card receipt and I get it and use the number on it, I'm not becoming you, but to the credit card company I've become your account."

One major problem, experts say, is that the Social Security Number (SSN)—originally meant only for retirement benefit and tax purposes—has become the universal way to identify people. It is used as identification by the military, colleges and in billions of commercial transactions.

Yet a shrewd thief can easily snatch your SSN, not only by stealing your wallet, but also by taking mail from your box, going through your trash for discarded receipts and bills or asking for it over the phone on some pretext.

Using your SSN, the thief applies for a credit card in your name, asking that it be sent to a different address than yours, and uses it for multiple purchases. A couple of months later the credit card company, or its debt collection agency, presses you for payment.

You don't have to pay the debt, but you must clean up your damaged credit record. That means getting a police report and copy of the erroneous contract, and then using them to clear the fraud from your credit report, which is held by a credit bureau. Each step can require a huge amount of effort.

In the Collins' case, the clearance of the erroneous charges from their record required three years of poring over records and $6,000 in solicitor's fees. In the meantime, they were denied a loan to build a vacation home, forced to pay cash for a new heating and cooling system, hounded by debt collectors, and embarrassed by the spectacle of having their home watched by investigators looking for the missing car.

Of course, thousands of people are caught and prosecuted for identity theft. But it was only last year that Congress made identity theft itself a federal crime. That law set up a special government office to help victims regain their lost credit and to streamline police efforts by tracking cases on a national scale.

Consumer advocates say this may help but will not address the basic problems, which, they believe, are causing the outbreak in identity theft: industry's rush to attract more customers by issuing instant credit, inadequate checking of identity, and too few legal protections for consumers personal information.

Which of the following may least make you fall prey to a nonviolent crime？

A．Your Social Security Number.

B．Your credit card receipt.

C．Your driver's license.

D．Your telephone.