© Manassanant Pamai | Dreamstime.com
What do these things have in common: a data protection breach, a credit card offer by mail, a doctor’s form and a darknet marketplace?
If you suspected something to do with your identity, you’re right. There are many ways someone can get your social security number. With just a handful of digits, they can do a lot of damage.
In 2023 alone, 2.6 million people fell victim to fraud and around 1 million fell victim to identity theft. In total, Americans lost $43 billion to identity fraud. The average reported loss is $500, but often it is much more – not just in dollars, but also in time and stress.
Here is the scariest part
About 416,000 of these identity theft victims didn’t realize something was wrong until they received an alert from their credit card company, tried to apply for a card, or were denied credit. By that point, the damage was already done.
Who’s the target? Sorry, anyone can. Some cybercrime is large-scale – think ransomware targeting large companies – but in the wild world of fraud, anyone with a bank account, credit card or mailbox is a potential victim.
Take, for example, the massive data theft that just occurred.
National Public Data collects information from non-public sources without consent, according to a class action lawsuit (paywall link). The hacker group USDoD is said to have broken into one of its unencrypted databases and stolen the records for a whopping $2.9 million. billion People.
The hackers have made the entire database, which contains social security numbers, full names and addresses, freely available on the dark web.
Identity theft is increasing because Crowd of information that scammers have access to. That’s why I wanted to tell you about Incogni.
For a few dollars, anyone can buy a file full of data about you – your voting records, email address, cell phone number, utility usage, purchase history, credit score, browsing habits, employment history, medical records, the names and contact information of your family members, where you live and how much you paid for your house. The list is endless.
There is a way to shorten the process
I can tell you from personal experience that you can delete your personal information from the Internet one by one, but it is very tedious and more frustrating than you think. Remember, these sites wants you getting lost in the confusing steps, just throwing up my hands and saying, “Whatever.” I wasted 36 hours this way.
Then I found Incogni. Think of it as your personal privacy service. You find your information on people search and data broker websites and Incogni then automatically submits deletion requests on your behalf.
I receive regular emails from Incogni about the progress. So far, my personal data has been removed from 257 of these creepy databases, saving me an estimated 197 hours.
Even better, they ensure that my data is permanently unblocked by forcing data brokers to put my data on their block lists. This means that they never collect any personal data that could be linked to me.
✅ Try it right now while you’re thinking about it. I’ve negotiated an offer just for you: 60% off Incogni. Don’t wait any longer and protect your identity. It’s worth too much, so do it right now.
Keywords: Apple, family, hackers, data protection, ransomware, security
