Identity thieves advertising on YouTube

By

Identity thieves have turned to YouTube to advertise their wares, although the video sharing site has been taking down the videos as fast as they appear.

In one video the seller, who never reveals his face, offers full identity dossiers for US$25 a time, or five for US$100. The dossiers contain the subject’s names, address, social security number, driving license details, sex, mother's name, occupation, age, car license plate, date of birth and net worth including any real estate and liquid assets.

Identity thieves advertising on YouTube

“It's crazy,” said Brian Sullivan, MSNBC’s online crime correspondent.

“I talked to this guy via email and he said he would sell me the details in exchange for a PayPal deposit. His ad even had a disclaimer that the information could only be used for marketing purposes and can’t be used for illegal activity.”

He blamed companies for storing too much information on customers for the growing commercialisation of identity theft, calling them “packrats.”

Too often he said they collected information that had no relevance and stored it for good, making customers more vulnerable.

YouTube has a strict take-down policy on videos advertising illegal services and any such sites should be reported immediately.

Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Copyright ©v3.co.uk
Tags:

Most Read Articles

India's alarm over Chinese spying rocks CCTV makers

India's alarm over Chinese spying rocks CCTV makers

Hackers abuse modified Salesforce app to steal data, extort companies

Hackers abuse modified Salesforce app to steal data, extort companies

Cyber companies hope to untangle weird hacker codenames

Cyber companies hope to untangle weird hacker codenames

Victoria's Secret pulls down website amid security incident

Victoria's Secret pulls down website amid security incident

Log In

  |  Forgot your password?