Word of warning

[agnes!]

I guess I kind of want to know why I should go there to correct or delete information... Won't the site probably just set a bunch of cookies on my machine & harvest my ISP just by my visiting? Won't they get their number of hits up just by my visiting? Hmmmm....this site would be a great way to infect machines with malware/spyware/adware. And there's already a bunch of stuff on practically everybody at whitepages.com...

I do love all the stories about people living in million-dollar homes though .

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

This about.com webpage in their urban legends section has an interesting take...

Okay, here's the deal. Spokeo.com is basically a search engine that aggregates information pertaining to individual names, email addresses, and phone numbers from public online sources such as phone books, real estate listings, and government records, plus profile entries from sites like Facebook, MySpace, Amazon.com, LinkedIn, Flickr, and many others (the site lists upwards of 50 potential data sources).

Similar online services include Pipl, ZoomInfo, ZabaSearch, Radaris, and Intelius. ...

The thing is, if Spokeo can find it, the info is publicly available and can be found online by anyone, with or without the convenience of a Spokeo.com.

The website does provide a form whereby you can delete your individual listing (though some users report that this is easier said than done), but don't miss the critical point: Simply removing your stuff from Spokeo.com doesn't prevent anyone else from accessing it by other means. To protect your personal data on social networking services, you must either refrain from providing it to sites like MySpace, Facebook, Yelp, etc. in the first place, or adjust your privacy settings on each website accordingly.

And from a comment at this urbanlegends/about.com webpage:

All of my privacy settings were set so that only those who I accept can see my information. Still, the information came up. Also, so did my husbands info, and he doesn’t even get online.

After repeated emails back and forth with personnel at Spokeo, I have come to the conclusion that this is in fact a scam that scares users into ultimately purchasing a ReputationDefender package.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2010/04/07/spokeo-com-scam.htm


Here's a page at McAfee about it. What's funny is that McAfee states there aren't problems with the actual site, BUT there are multiple comments/complaints starting in 2007 saying that at the very least spokeo spams your address-book.

Here's one comment:

My sister entered her email into this website because she (and rightly so) wanted her information taken off the website. It then used her email & password to hack into her account and spam her entire address book. So I received an email (that looked like it was from her) with a link to this website. I suspect this is how this "service" collects even more information about you. So now I fear this site will add my email to their so-called white pages.

Plus it posts totally inaccurate or outdated information. It places my homes worth at more then double its value... it lists things I am interested in (like food and wine) I don't even drink! It says I ride a motercycle HAA HAAAA. Don't trust this site.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/www.spokeo.com

agnes!

 

[Holly]

Most of my information is incorrect.


I tried to have my info taken down and it wouldn't let me unless I paid.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Most of my information is incorrect.


I tried to have my info taken down and it wouldn't let me unless I paid.

There is really no point - all the info is available elsewhere anyway - so removing it from here does nothing.

 

[720L]

I guess I kind of want to know why I should go there to correct or delete information... Won't the site probably just set a bunch of cookies on my machine & harvest my ISP just by my visiting? Won't they get their number of hits up just by my visiting? Hmmmm....this site would be a great way to infect machines with malware/spyware/adware. And there's already a bunch of stuff on practically everybody at whitepages.com...

I do love all the stories about people living in million-dollar homes though .

agnes!

Since I went on there to look at myself, My spam has increased by at least 100 emails of junk! I didn't remove myself because it was all wrong info AND if someone wants info on you and they don't find it on that site they can find it somewhere else on the internet. So I didn't even enter my email into the site and it got me with spam.

 

[LisaNJ25]

apparently I am Hispanic and live in a million dollar house.. also have some housemates I have never heard of

 

[burlzgurl]

Thanks so much for letting me know. That is so typical... unbelievable what people will do these days. Talk about 'big brother' is watching you....
Totally NUTS!

 

[Miz Diz]

It has my dh in there and has his cell phone number. I don't know how they got that because he doesn't give his cell out to anyone, except friends. He may have given it to a business or 2.

 

[brasswillow]

Interesting: I typed in my name and found "me" although much of my information is incorrect.

It's annoying that personal information can be out, so easy to find, like that, but that's the price you pay for living in the digital age I guess.

 

[mrodgers]

Funny thing. I'm on an RC airplane forum, which is almost all male, and this site popped up with a title "This site is neat!"

I looked for my name, my wife's name, family member's names, a bunch of people I know, and I didn't find anyone's info.

 

[Minnie_me]

Weird. I'm not on there at all, and I have a very unusual name and am all over the internet, so I'd think I'd be there! However, my STBX-H is on there, already listed as living at the house where he's been living less than 4 months! How weird is that?!?!?! It's a crap-hole house, probably worth about $65,000, and spokeo lists it as a $1million house with a pool. It also has his mother, brother and dead father (since 1990) living with him!

 

[Luv2Camp]

Thanks for posting this! I checked, and all of my info was incorrect too, including the family photos. I wonder who's family that was! I removed it - Thanks again!!!

 

[mafibisha]

The only correct information on that site is publicly available information anyway so I am not worried about it. As someone who works in I.T. you would be astonished at how much information people put out into the Interwebs themselves.

There is enough information on many people's Facebook pages to social engineer your way into their email account and once in there that same information along with their email can get you into bank accounts, credit card sites, and just about anything else.

And when people think they have their profiles locked down, think again. All that "private" information sits on very public servers, servers with ways in. Data breaches happen all the time.

Never put anything online that you wouldn't want posted on a billboard next to the highway and you will be much better off.

Ok, what do you mean by social engineer?

But this is a great reminder, thanks. But now I'm even more scared! Tell us more about how to make our computer and sites safe!!

 

[njcarita]

well they have me down as a male.............excuse me I'm a female who gave birth to 3 kids.....

education... high school............ actually have a college degree.....

profession ... tradesman????...... i was a scientist now a music teacher???

 

[Robinrs]

I love how they have my sister as 40 and CAUCASIAN...

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I'm afraid to click on anything these days. This past week, I made a "purchase" online, realized it was a scam shortly afterward, and have been going through heck trying to undo it. Finally had to just cancel my credit card.

So, as much as I'm dying to see what might be on that website, I'm extremely cautious, to the point of neurotic. If other people look me up and see that I have a million dollar house with a pool...well, let them think that.

 

[PixieTopaz]

They have my house valued at $600k-I WISH!!-BUT say its in a Lower class neighborhood

But they have our income at $50K-now how in the world would someone with that income afford a $600k house?

 

[nowellsl]

I've been thinking I had a daughter for 25 years and apparently she's a boy

 

[FireDancer]

Ok, what do you mean by social engineer?

But this is a great reminder, thanks. But now I'm even more scared! Tell us more about how to make our computer and sites safe!!

Many people are under the misconception that things like email have to be hacked into, they don't. Let me give you an example of how someone can social engineer their way into an email address.

Lets say you have an email account and the way to reset a password is to answer 3 "secret" questions. Well, some of those common secret questions are things that can be socially engineered online. Lets say your 3 questions are:

Your high school mascot.
Your mother's maiden name.
The city you were born in.

Many times this information is pretty easy to figure out with a facebook profile. Sometimes it is explicit (having your school and graduating year in your info) and sometimes it is implicit (using friends to deduce your family members that have your mother's maiden name).

The way to combat this of course is to lie. For example, the year you graduated high school could be 866457 and your mother's maiden name can be juyy&^8. You just have to remember what you answered.

The best advice I can give is don't use the same password for sites like email and the DIS that you use for banking. None of those should include any words that can be found in the dictionary. Do the above with your challenge questions. These are just some ways that people can use the information you put out there to deduce (ie: socially engineer) your passwords.

Obviously there are other things like being smart when using unencrypted public hotspots and being able to sniff out a phishing attack, but that is a bit too much to post here.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

They have my house valued at $600k-I WISH!!-BUT say its in a Lower class neighborhood

But they have our income at $50K-now how in the world would someone with that income afford a $600k house?

The housing market has finally turned around and is on a drastic upswing.

Woohoooooooo!!!!!!!!