"A security manager [at my bank] called and said some strange charges were appearing on the credit card issued by the bank," Hughes said. "The next Sunday I got a call from a Four Seasons hotel in Washington [state]—they called me and said, 'Mr. Hughes, you left without paying your bill.'"

The hotel refused to tell Hughes the driver's license number used to secure a room, but finally gave him the last four digits. It was his license number.

"I had to get a new license, and when I showed the DMV a copy of the license used at the hotel, they instantly said, 'Oh, that was made by a typewriter.' [The thief] misspelled my name."

The thief had ordered room service. During the next six months he charged a leather jacket at Macy's and tried to get a new credit card using Hughes' identity. Was anyone ever arrested? "Of course not," said Hughes. He pointed out that identity-theft laws were nonexistent in 1996. He couldn't even obtain a police report from Washington police, who said he wasn't a victim. He had trouble renewing his driver's license for years.

Since 1996 Hughes has talked about the theft to community groups "10 or 11 times." Hughes spoke about the theft at a meeting of the Almaden Valley Community Association on Aug. 9. He's got another six engagements lined up over the next few weeks.

"I tell people how to fly below the radar, lower their profile. If you really want to go to zero probability, sell everything, go to gold bars, and move to an island in the South Pacific," he said. "In my case, my wallet wasn't stolen, my wife's purse wasn't stolen, we weren't burglarized."

Hughes suspects someone working at his bank snatched his identity. He said even eight years later he's still extremely paranoid. "I shred everything. There's two kinds of shredders—one cuts papers into strips, one cuts them crosswise. I bought the kind that cuts crosswise, because I could see someone getting strips out of the garbage and putting them back together."

In fact, that's just what the FBI did while investigating Enron, Hughes said.

The Resident wrote a story several weeks ago about four Almaden residents who discovered that their bills had been stolen from an outdoor mailbox at the post office on Crown Boulevard. Hughes said stories like that compel him to mail everything from inside the post office.

He said he charges the groups he addresses with a homework assignment: Go home and do three things to minimize your risk.

"Save or shred everything. Don't give out any information unless you initiated the contact. Minimize the number of credit cards you have," Hughes said, giving examples of easy ways to safeguard identities. "Check your credit report every year. Read your bills in detail."

Technology is only making it easier for thieves—computer programs now mimic the official DMV font. Kinko's not only copies in color, but also laminates whatever a customer wants. Waiters can snap photos of your credit card with cell phones as you pay your bill.

"It's an insidious corrosion," said Hughes. "It's the agony of the whole thing. When I speak to people, I want to inform them. And I want to scare the living daylights out of them."