The holiday shopping season is under way, and whether you're buying online or in a traditional brick and mortar store, your identity could be at risk. Identity theft sees a definite uptick around the holidays and income tax time. "People are starting to holiday shop and are putting information out there more frequently," explains Paige Schaffer, president and COO of Generali Global Assistance's identity and digital protection services global unit.

According to the Javelin 2016 Identity Fraud Study, fraudsters stole the identities of 13.1 million victims in 2015 and used them to spend $15 billion in fraudulent expenditures. In addition, 18 percent of the fraud using U.S. credit cards took place outside of the country, costing $2.4 billion.

In its Identity Fraud Prevention Playbook, LexisNexis says that identities have become more accessible for fraudsters, who can purchase personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, social security numbers, addresses and birthdates, as well as birth certificates, passports and social security cards. Now, instead of stealing an entire identity, fraudsters will establish a new one using these stolen pieces of PII, which makes them harder to track, but still able to do untold damage to the victim's credit profile.