As the holiday season sends shoppers cruising the Internet for great deals, it's important to be sure that your identity stays safe. Even though identity theft has been in the news for years, it's still a scourge, with digital criminals nabbing credit card numbers and other personal information, and leaving their victims to untangle the financial mess. Here are a few tips for making sure you're buying presents for friends and family, rather than putting your good name at risk.

Understand social networking
Sites that collect personal information like MySpace or Facebook can be fertile "fishing grounds" for identity thieves. Since a profile can contain your name, address and date of birth, that's a great headstart for criminals to find out other information. Some people even put up personal details like their mother's maiden name, their profession and place of work and financial data such as salaries. Always be careful about how much info there is online about you, and be aware of how someone could use that data.

Know the criminals' tricks
Some personal information doesn't need to be gathered online – it can come from a simple phone call. The watchdog group PrivacyRights notes that some thieves go through trash cans for discarded mail, particularly credit card offers. They also look over people's shoulders at ATM machines or get credit reports by posing as your employer or landlord. In the digital realm, they send email messages that look like they're from your bank and ask you to input information as a security measure.

Stay sharp, and make sure to shred all sensitive documents, and never reply to a bank email without first calling your bank (and not through a number provided via the email message) to verify the sender.

Change passwords frequently

When creating passwords, don't use the last four digits of your Social Security number, your birthdate, pet's name or anything else that could be discovered by criminals. Also, create a password that has both letters and numbers and is a fairly long, since those are harder for thieves to crack. Change the passwords often, and never keep them in your wallet or purse.

Get help in your corner

Even if you have credit monitoring or fraud alerts from your credit card companies, scams targeting real estate transactions and Social Security numbers can still occur. Also, only about 15 percent of identity fraud is credit-related, so credit card firms don't see much of the potential fraud. A service such as Identity Truth can offer protection with alerts that tell you whether your information has been leaked to thieves, and advice on what to do if fraud seems likely. The site also has an individual identity profile, so you can review the details about your identity to see if someone might be preying on your data.

Shopping online can be easy, and can stretch holiday dollars further than ever before thanks to comparison shopping. But when you click and buy, make sure your identity is safe by cultivating awareness about identity theft and staying vigilant about what can hurt you.