Dozens of sellers on the freelancing platforming Fiverr claim to have access to a powerful data tool used by private investigators, law enforcement, and insurance firms which contains personal data on much of the U.S. population. The sellers are then advertising the ability to dig through that data for prospective buyers, including uncovering peoples’ Social Security numbers for as little as $30, according to listings viewed by 404 Media. Fiverr removed the listings after 404 Media inquired about the practice.
The advertised tool is TLOxp, maintained by the credit bureau TransUnion, and can also provide a target’s unlisted phone numbers, utilities, physical addresses, and more.
There is a good chance many of these listings are scams, designed to take peoples’ money without providing the requested data, or by sourcing it in another way and presenting the results as a TLOxp search. Regardless, the advertisements’ existence presents a content moderation issue for Fiverr.
404 Media has previously reported on how TLOxp and similar tools have become a secret weapon in the digital underground, with hackers and fraudsters using the capabilities to dox people in minutes. The tools can be especially powerful because some use credit header data, which is personal information people provide to their financial institutions in the normal course of business of obtaining a credit card, which then trickles down to a wide web of other companies.
Article doesn’t really go into how TLOxp can dox/unmask people.
Probably because it’s proprietary to TransUnion. Needless to say it’s powerful and thorough.
Needless to say it’s powerful and thorough.
I mean, this does need to be said. It’s important details I was hoping to learn from the article. Otherwise it’s spooky stories we can’t actually build defenses for.
If you are American you essentially have no defense short of going completely off the grid. TLOXP PROVIDES ACCESS TO:
- Data on over 95% of the U.S. population
- 350 million Social Security numbers
- Over 225 million employment records
- 4 billion phone records
- 4 billion address records
- 90 million adult Millennials age 18–36 Source, they also sell license plate reader data, and your actual driving data if you have a newer vehicle.
Then I guess “dox” in this context is resolving your name to other PII? I originally read it as more of a way to unmask people online.
Among the search parameters available, include IP address, social media profiles, and phone numbers, so it is definitely possible to unmask someone online, but their bread and butter is credit information which now a days includes everything about you (ever wonder how they make security questions to verify you off “public records”?)
Can we get a list of donors to the heritage foundation?
$30 seems expensive for a social. That’s the kind of crime you buy in bulk
Not if it’s an estranged husband/wife looking for retribution, or a stalker, etc. Lots of individuals would be interested in a single person’s info.
