- Resources
- Glossary
The terms scammers hope you never learn.
Twenty words that explain how your information gets out and how it gets used against you.
- Account takeover
- A criminal gets into an account you already have, usually with a leaked or reused password, then changes the contact details so you cannot get back in.
- Breach
- An incident where a company's stored data is copied by someone who should not have it. Breached records are sold and traded, which is how one leak feeds years of phishing and fraud.
- Credit freeze
- A free setting at each credit bureau that stops new creditors from pulling your report, so a thief cannot open an account in your name. You lift it temporarily when you apply for credit yourself.
- Credit lock
- A bureau's app-based version of a freeze that you toggle on and off. It works the same way day to day, but a freeze is the option defined by federal law.
- Dark web
- Websites that need special software to reach and do not appear in search engines. Some of them are markets where stolen data, including passwords and Social Security numbers, is bought and sold.
- Data aggregator
- A company that collects records from many sources, such as public filings, purchases, and apps, and combines them into profiles that other companies buy.
- Data broker
- A business that sells personal information about people it has no direct relationship with. Brokers supply marketers, people-search sites, and anyone else who pays.
- Doxxing
- Publishing someone's private details, such as a home address or phone number, to expose or intimidate them. People-search sites make it possible in minutes.
- Fraud alert
- A note on your credit file that asks lenders to verify your identity before opening new credit. It is free, lasts 1 year (7 for confirmed victims), and one bureau shares it with the other two.
- Hard inquiry
- A credit check made when you, or someone pretending to be you, applies for credit. It appears on your report and can lower your score slightly.
- Identity theft
- Using someone else's personal information to open accounts, file taxes, get medical care, or commit other fraud in their name.
- Medical identity theft
- Using your health insurance or medical identifiers to get treatment or bill an insurer. It can leave wrong information in your medical records.
- People-search site
- A website that lets anyone look up a person's address, phone number, age, and relatives, usually for a fee. The listings are built from data broker records.
- Phishing
- An email or message that pretends to come from a company or person you trust in order to steal a password, a payment, or personal details.
- Robocall
- An automated call that plays a recorded message. Many are scams, and most are dialed to lists of numbers bought from data brokers.
- SIM swap
- A fraud where a criminal convinces your carrier to move your phone number to their device, then uses it to receive the codes that unlock your accounts.
- Smishing
- Phishing by text message. The link usually leads to a fake login page or a request for payment.
- Soft inquiry
- A credit check that does not affect your score, such as checking your own report or a monitoring service pulling it on your behalf.
- Spoofing
- Faking the number that appears on caller ID. Scammers spoof local numbers to get you to answer, and sometimes spoof your number to target the people you know.
- Vishing
- Voice phishing: a phone call, sometimes with an AI-generated voice, that uses details from your broker profile to sound legitimate and talk you into handing over money or codes.
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