There are plenty of pirates and predators determined to steal your good name and exploit it.

Full and fair disclosure: I hate credit cards. I hate the debt that their users create. Maybe it is the Puritan or the Amish within me, but I disdain plastic money and the increasing use of numbers — especially the Social Security number — to mark each one of us.

Although the SSN is not supposed to be an identifier, that is exactly what it is.

A few years ago, I reluctantly obtained a debit card, with the intention of using it most sparingly. Indeed, I have used it on rare occasions to rent a car or to make motel reservations.

Recently I made my first debit-card purchase on a website — and someone else quickly tried to take my name and number in vain. Shortly after completing the purchase form on the site, I signed off. Within less time than it takes to heat a cup of water in a microwave oven, I received a call from a monitoring service telling me that someone had used my debit-card number to make a purchase for a certain amount, and the caller politely asked if I was the purchasing party. I replied that I was, and I was then told that someone — not me — attempted to use my card number to make another purchase. I replied that I did not attempt a second purchase, for a lesser amount, and that transaction was canceled.

Just to be on the safe side, I called the toll-free number on the website and canceled the deal. The operator said she would comply with my request, even though the company would like to do business with me again in the future.

I went to the credit union that had issued the debit card and told a teller that the card itself should be canceled because the number had been stolen and used by someone other than myself. The credit union agreed. I received a new card a few days later.

In retrospect, I should not have been shocked, after all. I recalled that about 17 years ago, while my mother was still alive, someone had gotten her credit card number and used it to run up debt at her expense — and mine. My mother received calls from people claiming to be her bank and other businesses, demanding payment for items she had not purchased, as well as calls from a credit union wanting to know when such and such a bill would be paid. Sometimes the calls came rather late at night, and sometimes on weekends. I asked the credit union if they had made such calls, and they assured me that such is not their way of doing business.

To make a long story short, it took about two years to clean up the mess that someone else made by stealing my mother’s identity. Though the actual monetary loss was rather small, the time, stress and aggravation from the episode were quite trying.

I wonder if a consumer boycott of using plastic money — say, for a month — would drive some of these people out of business, along with forcing merchants to be extra careful about credit deals.

If you care to share your experience, feel free — and you don’t have to enter a card number or your Social Security number.