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What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

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cr101
Established Contributor

What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

I've gotten a few alerts over the past few yrs about my info being found on the dark web. I haven't done anything, like freeze my account. The info that they have are my ss#, license state, and an address from about 3 moves ago. I guess that I just have faith that no one will actually use my info. But, what do you personally do when you get these alerts?

Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
GatoradeZeroGuy
Valued Contributor

Re: What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?


@cr101 wrote:

I've gotten a few alerts over the past few yrs about my info being found on the dark web. I haven't done anything, like freeze my account. The info that they have are my ss#, license state, and an address from about 3 moves ago. I guess that I just have faith that no one will actually use my info. But, what do you personally do when you get these alerts?


I would at the very least keep my credit frozen and also consider freezing the supplementary bureaus as well.




Starting FICO 8:

Current FICO 8:

3/6, 5/12, 14/24

Message 2 of 9
cashorcharge
Community Leader
Super Contributor

Re: What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

"Wait and hope" is not a strategy

Freeze your reports, pull they regularly to make sure nothing out of the ordinary appears on them

Look into freezing the other ancillary reports

If you haven't done it lately, change your password and make sure they are complex and not repeated 

Message 3 of 9
SeaProbe
Regular Contributor

Re: What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

Breaches are common. We only hear about the big ones normally. The real question is how valuable is the data in the breach to a malicious party?

 

Another way to look at this is how you can mitigate any potential harm from a breach, past, present, or future…

 

You can mitigate that through creating long & strong passwords. Even if your email or other personal data is circulating, hardening your accounts can make those data worthless to an attacker.

 

The most important thing is to use long, random passwords through a password manager such as BitWarden, 1Password, or LastPass. Whenever available, use two factor authentication (2FA), whether it be a code texted to your phone or a one-time password such as through Google Authenticator.

 

That applies to just about every online account that you have. For credit, you also have the ability to lock or freeze your data.

Message 4 of 9
805orbust
Valued Contributor

Re: What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

I find those alerts are useless. They literally (from my perspective of course) do, or give you nothing useful. That said, ALL of my reports are frozen except when I am going to apply for something. I even have several the lesser-knowns frozen. (Lexis-Nexus, Innovis, Sagestream, Chex) So no worries.

 

I've even had a prequal tool or 2 not work because they couldn't verify me, so freezing definitely works.  Your mileage may vary, however if you've already taken steps to safeguard your data/identity, then there's little that can be done with it when a breach occurs. I mean let's be honest, even Equifax let our data get stolen so if those no-talent hacks can get breached, you better believe our data is floating all around out there.



Message 5 of 9
babbles
Established Contributor

Re: What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

What did you mean by: supplementary bureaus as well. 

 

??

Message 6 of 9
Centurion_Dreamer
New Contributor

Re: What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

There are additional (secondary) bureaus beside the 3 main ones.

They are also collecting and holding data.

Read here for more information: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/SECONDARY-CREDIT-BUREAUS/m-p/6566843

They are often forgotten when it comes to credit freezes.

 

Active Cards (TCL 127k):
Message 7 of 9
805orbust
Valued Contributor

Re: What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

What @Centurion_Dreamer  said.  Personally I think the lesser-knowns may be more important since they are used almost universally without our knowledge.  Not a bad idea to have them send you a report and check for accuracy.  I found them to be MUCH more accurate than EQ, EX, and TU to be honest.

 

 



Message 8 of 9
AndySoCal
Valued Contributor

Re: What do you personally do when your info's found on the dark web?

@cr101 

Dark Web is the home to fraud.   The fraud that is being today is by some people who are very good at seperating you from your money.

Here is an article on the subject.

 

https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/topic/dark-web-fraud-how-to-guides-make-cybercrime-too-easy/ 

 

Take all necessary precautions to protect your fincances and credit.

 

 

 

FICO Scores XPN v8 802 V2 831 (SDFCU) TUC 803 v8 EFX 807 (10/2023)
Discover 09/90 19,000, JCPenney 10/2008 4,700 US Bank Cash+ 12,000 Citibank Custom Cash 5/2015 11,100 C State Dept. FCU 15,000 06/2023 , 02/2024 Redstone FCU Signature VISA 10,000 Banking: Ally Bank Credit Unions: Lafayette FCU Quorum FCU State Department FCU State Department FCU Pelican State CU Redstone FCU

Message 9 of 9
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