The creepiness that is Spokeo.com

A friend just alerted me to this Web site which works like a search engine pulling in all kinds of third-party data from Facebook, MySpace the phone book and all other sorts of sites to create scary-comprehensive profiles of people.

I just went through and removed myself as well as my parents.

Among the information I found after searching my name and clicking the correct entry (there were two others with the same name):

- Address
- Length of residence at current address
-Phone Number
-Approximate age
-Ethnicity
-Links to my parents pages and my brothers page
-My credit score --- WTF?
-An approximation of my income, which was scary close
-A list of my hobbies --- which again, were right
-A notification that I subscribe to magazines
-Links to all of my social networking pages

I have to think that this has to be enough information to steal someone's identity right? Or at least lead someone down the right path? Right?

 

How did you remove it?

The information listed for me is vastly wrong, but I still want it out of there.

 

Nothing special there that isn't available on dozens of other sites just like it. Similar to pipl.com.

 

Privacy is dead.

And if someone wants to steal your identity, they can. It's not that hard.

 

The info for me is vastly incorrect as well.

For example, it lists my estimated home value at "$1M+" but my neighborhood is "Below Average." My neighborhood is actually above average (one of the most desirable in the city) and my house isn't close to being appraised at $1 million.

 

I checked all my immediate family members. My little sister, who is literally trailer trash and hates children with about 98 percent of her being but loves Glenn Beck, is listed as living in a $1m home, having children and not being interested in politics. The rest of the family members were fairly accurate portrayals, though.

Still, it's scary that that stuff is out there. I wonder how accurate the credit scores are.

 

There was a link on there to have it removed. Search around, they will send you an e-mail to confirm. Follow the link and it will be removed.

I remember seeing that site as well. I know a lot of my info is out there, but I have my Facebook and LinkedIn locked down. Why does anyone need to publish my credit score.

I just think it makes it easier for people to steal identities. All they have to get is my mother's maiden name, or old address. Those are security questions to open up a credit card in some places. Ridiculous.

 

I'm getting an error message when I try to load that page.

 

I just got it, too. Maybe we're overloading it.

 

or maybe it was a trick to get people to confirm their information so somebody can steal their identity.

Tough break mustang.

 

It's cool, I already sold my identity for a Cheesy Gordita Crunch back in college. In hindsight it was a terrible decision, but man was that a delicious dinner.