IT/Search Engine/Off-Topic Question

Hi - It's my first ever posting on the IT forum. Who could have ever guessed this would happen? This is because, overall, I'm a complete novice in this area. I have a question for any/all you IT people and it has nothing to do with DL programs or any of that stuff. Here it is:
Once upon a time I got all these email messages about, "buy this software and you can find out anything about anybody..." It had a lot to do with locating people and it had a lot to do with learning details about people. My question is this: Can this really be done? I know that maybe hackers can learn some things by busting into databases, etc. but is there really software that can do this sort of thing? As I write this I feel like I'm being incredibly naive but I'm just trying to figure out the real deal. Any info will be appreciated.
Jack

 

Sounds like a scam to me. I'm not sure what sort of information they are selling, but I assume you mean they are selling a CD with which I could look up John Doe and get all sorts of info on him. That would basically be impossible. There's no way so much data could be on a CD.

However, you can get incredibly large amounts of information about people from the internet. While some information would be illegal to obtain, a lot of information is public information. For instance, if I knew your name and the county in which you reside, I could tell you your address, how much your local taxes are, when and if you have paid your taxes, when you bought your house, how much you paid for your house (useful when buying a house), and possibly even the floorplan of your house. This is all public record.

Spending a small amount of money, I could find out what schools you have attended, your license plate numbers, your driving records, etc...

Unethically I could get your social security number and thereby look at your credit rating.

Information is a double edged sword.

I suppose they may be selling some sort of software that acts as a front end to an online database with some information like the above. Odds are you can obtain most information you need without buying any software.

 

Hey Jack,

In response to your question, the answer is yes and no. Yes you can find HUGE amounts of information on people, but no, you don't need any software to do it. When I was working in information security part of my job was to create profiles on some of our clients through publicly avalible information on the internet. We would always show them this information in order to encourage them to be more aware of the information they released publicly. In all cases, the only thing I had was a web browser. Later I built a small program to automate the process a little, but I really isn't necessary, and it requires frequent modifications, as the layout of webpages often change.

Unique or somewhat unique names help. Even screen alias don't provided a lot of protection, as many people use the same aliases across several boards. A google search can yield a lot. If you read enough messeges, invariably someone mentions a city or state where the live or once lived. From there you can search that areas public records that are online.

In many cases, property ownership records, civil and criminal court records, state licenses and tons of other public information is online. After you have bled the public databases dry you can do several things. My state lists the names of every person incarerated in a state correctional facility for the past 20 years (It was kind of disturbing to see how many people I went to elementry school with became "guests" of the state). This kind of information can tell you a bunch.

You can also search on google and specific organiztion web pages which your target might be a member of. I remember How shocked one of our clients was when we produced a full dosier on him, including a picture of his wife and one of his children, with their home address and the school the children went to. We got this starting with only his name, and where he worked. Mostly, it just takes practice. The one type that can cause problems are people who are very old. In many cases, these people went to school, worked, and retired before the digital age. The exception is world war II vets. There are tons of pages for military units of that time, which list the rolls of all members of that unit.

I can go on for days. Do you have a specific question that I haven't answered. I'm happy to help.

Jon