There's no shortage of products promising to fend off identity theft. The easiest solution: Follow these three steps to lock up your data and keep tabs on your credit.

Step 1: Dry up junk mail Thieves use your pre-approved credit-card offers to open accounts in your name, which is the hardest type of ID theft to detect. Opt out of receiving the junk mail by calling 888-567-8688, a service run by the credit bureaus. Select option three to permanently remove your name from marketing lists (you can always opt in later).

Step 2: Go paperless Shredding will eliminate your paper trail. Even easier is to receive and pay bills online, which ensures that info can't be lifted from stolen mail. Plus, with 24-hour account access, you'll see an unauthorized charge on your card right away.

Step 3: Watch over your credit It's easy to request a free report from one of the big three bureaus every four months at AnnualCreditReport.com. Want more oversight? For $5 a month, TripleAlert.com will monitor your credit and alert you to any changes. Even better is a credit freeze, but just 25 states allow it, in some cases only for ID theft victims.

By Kate Ashford, Carolyn Bigda, George Mannes, Walter Updegrave and Penelope Wang