How Scammers Get Your Contact Information

[CaptTom]

Every wonder why scammers (like the US documentation scam) know so much about you?

The following e-mail came to one of (probably all of) the addresses listed on our marina's web site. The names have been removed on the off chance they would give this breed of vermin more exposure.

Hi,

Greeting of the day!

Would you be interested in acquiring an email list of "Boat Owners" from USA?

Our Databases:- 1.RV Owners List 2.Sail and Power boat Owners List
3.Travelers List 4.Fishing Enthusiasts List
5.Cruise Travelers List 6.Motorcycle Owners List
7.Camping Enthusiasts List 8.Spa and Resort Visitors List
9.Car Owners List 10.Outdoor Enthusiasts List and many more..,

We provide Data fields on each record contains: Name (First and Last), Address, City, State, Zip, County, Opt-in Email Address, Boat use, Boat length, Boat Propulsion, Boat Fuel, Boat Hull Material, Boat Make, Boat Hull Shape, Boat Size, Boat Year, Boat Transaction Date, Boat Transaction Type, Boat Validation Date and Registration date.

All the contacts are opt-in verified, complete permission based and can be used for unlimited multi-channel marketing.

Please let me know your thoughts towards procuring the Boat Owners List.

Waiting for your valuable and sincere reply.


Best Regards,
Name Withheld
Research Analyst

Welcome to the 21st century!

Part of me wants to buy the list just to see if my name is one of the "opt-in verified, complete permission" entries.

[SailsWithFists]

Avoiding personal exposure is quite easy, but most people will not take the time to do it. They prefer convenience over information security.

I gave my name and SSN to an "investigator" who said he could find anyone's personal data (address, phone, voting records, meta data, etc.) in 10 seconds or less with just that information.

I bet him $100 he could not find me in a week. He insisted I put the $100 on the table. Needless to say, he only found the information I wanted him to find, none of which led to me.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Every wonder why scammers (like the US documentation scam) know so much about you?

The following e-mail came to one of (probably all of) the addresses listed on our marina's web site. The names have been removed on the off chance they would give this breed of vermin more exposure.



Welcome to the 21st century!

Part of me wants to buy the list just to see if my name is one of the "opt-in verified, complete permission" entries.

Then they send a reply pre-loaded with a ransomware virus..

[BlackHeron]

Never use your real name online -ever.

[Calif.Ted]

Originally Posted by SailsWithFists

Avoiding personal exposure is quite easy, but most people will not take the time to do it. They prefer convenience over information security.

I gave my name and SSN to an "investigator" who said he could find anyone's personal data (address, phone, voting records, meta data, etc.) in 10 seconds or less with just that information.

I bet him $100 he could not find me in a week. He insisted I put the $100 on the table. Needless to say, he only found the information I wanted him to find, none of which led to me.

You gave someone your SSN for $100 ?

[SailsWithFists]

Originally Posted by Calif.Ted

You gave someone your SSN for $100 ?

You obviously do not know how easy it is to buy SSNs. You can buy anyone's SSN on the web for $5, plus it was to a relative who already knew me, and nearly all of my vital statistics.

Ever wondered about those low dollar charges on your CC that get voided. That is a test of a purchased CC number (those only cost $1). If they can verify the CC number works, the value goes up to $10. If they can verify the account value it goes up to $25. If it comes with a verified SSN, address, and voice recording they usually sell for $100.

If you believe your data is not already out on the web, for sale (or in many cases free) you are kidding yourself. I would sell my SSN for $100 everyday because I know mine is useless because of precautions I have taken to secure my data from fraud.

Before I took these steps, I regularly (2-5 times per year) had to call my bank because of fraud and stolen identity. I have not had to do that in the last 8+ years.

[Group9]

An eye opener for me was finding out some illegal alien had been using my social security number for his W-4 years ago.

[martinworswick]

There are dedicated groups out there trying to scam the scammers-this is one of my favourites

-http://www.419eater.com/html/SkeletonCoast/

-its a bit of a read but worth it,i nearly spat my coffee on the keyboard when he describes his experience on the high seas!

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by martinworswick

There are dedicated groups out there trying to scam the scammers-this is one of my favourites

-http://www.419eater.com/html/SkeletonCoast/

-its a bit of a read but worth it,i nearly spat my coffee on the keyboard when he describes his experience on the high seas!

It warms my heart to know there are folks out there fighting the good fight against these criminals.

We don't all need to go around wearing tin-foil hats, but I think a stronger sense of skepticism would do the average American citizen a lot of good.

[Lake-Effect]

The big problem is... most companies like it like this. Data sales is big business. It seems that the big companies - banks, charge cards, payment processors, auction sites - are reluctant to provide actual stats on scams/fraud, and happier to simply cover individuals' losses when they have to. It's just a cost of doing business.

It was like this before the Internet, too, when people could simply dumpster-dive for charge-card carbons, etc. The charge card companies would usually eat fraudulent charges, as long as the cardholder could provide reasonable evidence that they had control of the card, and that the problem charges were out of character.

Unfortunately, this helps keep the authorities out of the loop, and, at least in Canada, enforcement and prosecution seems to be the exception, not the rule.

I've tried to be proactive: I used to forward phishing emails, or report government impersonations, etc. Often it was hard to even figure out where to send or report such messages. A few times I've even offered to 'play' the scammer, if it would help with an investigation. ...nothing. They don't acknowledge submissions (other than a robo-responder) and you never hear about prosecutions.

All the user can do is to remain vigilant, be careful with the information you give out, be paranoid about emails with links, and regularly scan your account transactions for anomalies. We see the attempts, but so far we've never been victims.

[hellosailor]

There are a lot of originally well-intended "sunshine laws" as in Floridia, where pretty much all government information is available for inspection and sale to all comers. So if you file a complaint with a government agency, and you leave any contact information on it? Like your phone number or email address?
Bingo, it gets bought and sold all the telemarketers and scammers all pass it around.
Likewise, if you've ever donated to a charity? Even 30 years ago, they were making $4 a pop by selling lists of "donors" "repeat donors" "donors over $1000" to anyone who asked for them. The better sources only rented their lists out, i.e. you paid them and THEY were the only ones who knew where the mail was being posted.
But these days? Everyone sells everything, with few notable exceptions. Including the post office, who sells the "change of address" data.

[CharlzO]

See, I took a much more proactive approach, and destroyed my credit years ago and now pay cash for anything. So if someone wants to steal my identity, they get to fix my "good name" before they can exploit me.

[john61ct]

Other more civilized developed nations have much better privacy and consumer protection than the US.

The operating principle is that **you** are the owner of your information, and you should be able to dictate how companies can make use of it.

In practice of course anything stored in a computer database is easily stolen.

[aye-aye-captain]

One technique that I use which I found pretty useful when identifying who sell your data/email is when you subscribe to a new service, always use username+youremail@gmail.com instead of youremail@gmail.com

When Gmail sees a "+" in an email address, it uses all the characters to the left of the plus sign to know who to send it to.

If you search Gmail for username+samplesitecom, you will see all messages that were sent to that email address.To see who is responsible for sending a specific message click the Show Details link and you will see the complete address.

[Dogbah13]

if you're a credit card user, most probably your information are out there in the dark web