Wallets are the vault for identity thieves.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

Your wallet is akin to a miniature directory of your identity. Your driver's license, credit card, debit card, medical insurance card, and other numbers all are stored together. However, in the event of a lost or stolen wallet, having all of this information in one place greatly increases your risk of identity theft.

ProtectMyID.com has some tips that can help travelers avoid disaster:

* Keep a record. If your wallet and everything in it suddenly were missing, you would need to know what you had lost. In a personal notebook you keep in a secure place at home, write down all of the information from the front and back of your important cards. Be sure to update the list as needed. This will help you make the appropriate calls following a theft.

* Limit your cards. For preemptive protection, only carry what you need on a daily basis. If you have multiple credit cards, have...