Data brokers sell your personal information to scammers even without Facebook

“I don’t use Facebook. I don’t even have an email. Scammers probably know anything about me?”

This is the question that I listen to more than 60 people all the time. If you believe that remained closed Social media And to avoid the Internet, you are invisible to the fraudsters, think again.

The truth is, even if you have never posted a single thing online, scammers can still find out your age, home address, names of relatives, property value and even when you have faced the loss of a loved one. How? Because everyday details of your offline life are being collected quietly, digitized, and sold.

And scammers are taking full advantage.

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Remove your data to protect your retirement from scammers

How do scammers target seniors without social media

Here is the uncomfortable reality: you do not need to “keep yourself out” to appear your information online. Most of its parts automatically get public records, the way our legal and government systems work.

Some of the largest sources include:

• Obituaries: When a dear person passes, often lists family members, age, places and relationships. For scammers, it is a family tree of potential goals.
• Real Estate Record: Property purchases, sales and even mortgage details are public. This can tell scammers whether you are lump sum of your home, what is its price, and if you can be a cash-rich.
• Probate filing: When the estate passes through the probate, details about the beneficiaries and the property are recorded. Scammers can identify heirs and target them with fraud “inheritance aid”.
• Property Tax Documents: These can often be discovered by someone. They reveal not only your address but also your financial situation.
• Court filing: Divorce, bankruptcy and civil disputes often have personal details, which are public by law.

On their own, they cannot look dangerous. But joint, they make a shocking detailed picture of your life.

Data broker opt-out step every retirement should take today

Mourning scams and emotional tricks use scammers

One of a cruel scams I have recently seen is what I say Mourning scam.

It works like this:

A scammer scrap local obedient people to see that a spouse or wife or child has recently lost. They then arrive by phone, email, or even by mail, pretend to be a funeral house, a grief consultant, or a donation. Because they refer to real names, dates and relationships, their outreach looks authentic from pain.

• Example: “We saw that you have lost your husband on March 3. We want to provide you a free grief support service …”
• Or: “The final medical expenses of your loved one can qualify for reimbursement. We need your banking details to confirm.”

When you are in mourning, your guard is down. Scammers know this, and they take advantage of sorrow to steal money and identity.

Other emotionally charged scams follow the same playbook

• Fake Medicare Call Referring to your age and place.
• Financial Advisors Offering “aid” with retirement rollover.
• Romance scam To target widows and widows who live alone.
• Fake agent scam Suffering to pay thousands of dollars through phone threats

The integrated factor is that these criminals do not need Facebook to learn about you. They already have a dosier made of public and brocade data.

Worse, scammers can target your loved ones even after years of passing. They can call or text their close relatives, claiming to offer free monument services, annuities, or other general strategies when people are the weakest. Your exposed personal data fuels such sick scams.

9 online privacy risk you probably don’t know about

Stunning source of your personal data

Most people do not realize the part here: scammers rarely dig through dusty courthouse files. They do not have. That work has already been done Data brokerData brokers are companies whose entire business models are collecting and selling personal information. They collect:

• public record (Such as those obesity and real estate filing)
• Consumer database (Credit Header, Magazine Membership, Survey)
• “People Search” websites (Spoco, white pages, performed, and dozens of more).

The result is a searchable profile that may include:

• Full name and surname
• Current and previous addresses
• Phone number and email address
• Relatives and their contact information
• Age, income limit, home price
• Legal or financial history

Once a broker has your data, they sell it. And once it is sold, it spreads. Even if you never have a social media account, companies can create a ‘manufacture’Shadow profile ‘ You get ready to abuse it, from the leaked data, online purchase, or the details shared by others.

How to protect yourself from scammers and data brokers

Good news is, you are not powerless. When you cannot stop the public record from the current, you can make your data very difficult to access and make weapons for scammers. This way:

1) Reduce your digital footprint

• Request people to remove from search sites and data brokers.
• This prevents your profile from selling scammers.
• Doing this can take manually hours and they have to be repeated, but it works.

2) Be cautious for emotional manipulation

• If someone contacts you after a loss, take care.
• Verify donations and funeral services before attaching.
• Never share banking or personal details on phone or email.

3) automate data removal

• Instead of manually contacting hundreds of data brokers, you can use a secret -like service.
• It sends and tracks the requests to remove the removal to 420+ brokers, and keeps repeating the process so that your data does not revive.
• With their unlimited plan, you can request the removal of data from any other shady website and disappear from the Internet.
• For seniors, it is often the safest and most practical solution.

While no service can guarantee the removal of your data from the Internet completely, a data removal service is actually a smart option. They are not cheap, nor is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically monitoring your personal information from hundreds of websites. This is what gives me peace of mind and has proved to be the most effective way to eradicate your personal data from the Internet. By limiting the available information, you reduce the risk of cross-referring data from breech to scams cross-referenceing data, which they can find on the dark web, making it difficult for them to target them.

See my top pics for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already on the web Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt’s major takeaways

Not being on Facebook does not mean that you are invisible. Scammers do not need to share your life online. Your offline life is already online without your consent. Obituari in local paper, deeds for your home, probate records of your loved one, all these turn into data points, are sold to brokers, and whatever they want is re -added. So the protection of your personal data is not about avoiding the Internet. It is about reducing which is already out. Less data scammers can find, it is difficult for them that you are foolish with realistic, emotionally charged attacks. And this is a big step towards securing your money, your identity and your retirement.

Do you believe that it’s time for government and companies to step into your data privacy and protect them? Write us and tell us Cyberguy.com.

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Distribute my best technical tips, immediate safety alerts, and exclusive deals directly into your inbox. In addition, you will get immediate access to my final scam survival guide – when you join me Cyberguy.com newspaper.

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