When scammers get hold of your personal information, it can lead to serious trouble. Those details can be used directly in fraud or be used to put together a more detailed picture of you that can be sold to identity thieves.
Personal details can include:
- Full name, address and contact details
- Bank account numbers and login information
- Logins and passwords for websites
- Identification numbers, e.g. passport details or driving licence
There are four main methods that scammers use to get your personal information.
- Phishing Scams and Buying From Other Criminals
Criminals get your information from phishing exercises, fake competitions, fake websites etc. and often they simply find a business email address then make up entries by combining common first names with the business email address. If they get a response to their spam emails that tells them you have an active email account and you will get a lot more scam and spam messages.
They also buy this data from other scammers and spammers who sell list of people’s information on the dark web.
Simple data such as name and address sells for just tens of dollars per thousand people but financial data sells for much higher prices e.g. valid credit card details plus the security number on the back and the persons full name can sell for up to hundreds of dollars per person.
- Data brokers
These companies collect and sell all the data they can legally find, such as names, date of birth, telephone numbers, addresses, land records, marriage records, criminal history, social media profiles etc. They consolidate this data from dozens of different public records, then compile it online.
A lot of the information is likely to be out of date or just wrong, but some is likely to be accurate.
- Data breaches
This is where hackers break into organisation’s computer systems to steal data. Sometimes this is published on the dark web and sometimes sold directly to other criminals.
The targeted information may include names, driver’s license numbers, medical and financial records, and email addresses and passwords.
- Social media and blogs
Your social media accounts may contain all the pieces a cybercriminal needs to commit fraud, such as your full name, where you live and work, photos of you and your family, holiday plans, and your favourite bands and hobbies. E,g, some people use a pet’s name as a password or as an answer to a security question so if your pet is on your social media then they will try it.
Removing social profiles and information on blogs or at least restricting the personal information makes it harder for the criminals to scam you.
Make sure the scammers cannot get your personal information – stay safe.
If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.
