![]() ![]() For example, see what you can find out about yourself at: There are many sites dedicated to gathering/aggregating all of the publicly available information about people. Note: if you changed your name at some point in your life, be sure to check your current name and previous ones. If you search intex:FirstName Last Name you’ll see results showing your name anywhere in the text.You could also swap out the file extension with other popular file types such as jpg, xls, pdf, etc. Look for: FirstName LastName filetype:doc (exactly like this, without any space!) to see if you can find any Word documents that contain your name.Search: FirstName and you’ll see if you can find email addresses attached to you.An operator is a character or string of characters that can be used in a search engine query to narrow the focus of your search. But you can also amp up your Google game by using some search operators. Here are some tips: Start with a search engine, but go beyond the basicsĪ variety of open source intelligence websites recommend you start by putting in your first name and last name and see what you get-and we’ve all probably done that. You should know what they do to stay one step ahead. “Open source intelligence” makes it sound like you’re becoming a spy, but really you’re just using online tools available to everyone-including scammers. You’ve got to be a bit of a detective and do a little open source intelligence work-just like the scammers do. Instead, it’s spread across the internet in different public spaces. So how much information about you is on the internet? The bits of data about you aren’t sitting all in one place, of course. In your panic and freak out, it would seem entirely plausible because the details add up. ![]() The caller says there’s been a terrible accident and they need detailed insurance and payment information so they can provide urgently-needed medical care for. Just picture it: you get an urgent call from a “first responder” from. The more information that’s publicly available, the easier it is toĭon’t believe me? Consider this: if a scammer can find your sibling’s name and where they live, they could easily create a legit-sounding imposter scam. It’s about all of the individual bits of information and how it can be put together to create a picture of who you are to create a custom-designed scam. It’s not about whether people know about that embarrassing fender-bender, or the fact that your dog Cujo has a favorite brand of food. Even if you’re thinking, “I’m not really a private person, so I don’t care what’s out there” -you really should. You’ve heard over, and over (and over) how you should do your best to protect your privacy and what you share online.
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