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The ABC15 Investigators found numerous tax returns openly available, social security numbers and bank account information left vulnerable, because the owners or someone in their home also use their computers for file sharing.
"If you're going to allow this type of software to run on your home computers, you have to make sure you understand what you're potentially sharing with the whole world," said Ken Colburn with Data Doctors in Tempe.
Colburn said popular programs like Limewire are often used by teenagers for music swapping, and parents don't know what else that software can access, potentially anything in your "My Documents" folder.
This includes notes, personal pictures, and possibly even passwords.
Searching by keywords related to taxes, we found them over and over again, forms belonging to people from Virginia to Ohio to California, even Ontario, Canada.
We attempted to contact them all to make them aware of what was out there.
"That's very good to know. I thank you very much for your call," said the man in Ontario, Canada.
"Essentially everything I would need to know about these individuals to commit some form of fraud is here," said Ken Huffer, Special Agent in Charge at the U.S. Secret Service Phoenix office.
We put what we found in safe hands, turning over our printouts to Huffer to be shredded and burned.
We also reformatted the hard drive on the machine we used for this story to amke sure all the information we gathered was erased.
Huffer said people need to take extra precautions when they open their computers to file sharing.
"You can physically watch someone in your home. You know about doors and locks. With computers it's not so obvious," Huffer said.
Back at Data Doctors, Colburn said he doesn't allow these programs in his home.
He suggests if you are going to use them to protect your documents by installing the software manually rather than automatically following the default settings.
You can then de-select the "My Documents" folder, specific sub-folders, or any particular file types you do not want shared.
"Remove these items so you absolutely are clear on what you are sharing," Colburn said.
Watch Ken Colburn with Data Doctors to walk you through how to properly install these programs
"Our industry takes the safety of consumers very seriously," said Marty Lafferty with the Distributed Computing Industry Assocation, representing LimeWire and other file sharing software makers. "Once this concern was recognized, we responded proactively. Our best advice now - to parents and children alike - is similar to that given by other Internet software distributors: Please upgrade to the latest version for the best performance and the safest experience."
In a written statement, LimeWire said, "We at LimeWire understand that internet safety is paramount, and we strive to offer peer-to-peer's most secure technology. Our newest version, LimeWire 5, by default, cannot share sensitive file types such as spread sheets or documents. In fact, the software cannot share any file or directory without explicit permission from the user."
FILE SHARING APPLICATIONS
These are some of the available file sharing programs. Computer experts warn users to use caution when installing and executing these applications.
Acquisition
aMule
ANts P2P
Ares Galaxy
BearShare
BitComet
BitTornado
BitTorrent5
BitTorrent6
Cabos
DC++
eDonkey2000
eMule
ExoSee
Free Download Manager
Freenet
FrostWire
giFT
Gnucleus
GNUnet
gtk-gnutella
iMesh
Kazaa
Kazaa Lite
KCeasy
LimeWire
MLDonkey
MonoTorrent
Morpheus
MUTE
Nodezilla
Opera
Qbittorrent
RShare
Share
Shareaza
Soulseek
SymTorrent
Transmission
TrustyFiles
uTorrent
Vuze
Warez P2P
WinMX
Winny
Wuala
