As election day draws nearer, it’s important to think about the information you are sharing when you hit the voting booths. Just over 35 million U.S. voters have their personal information and voting history for sale on the Dark Web, currently. The type of information that is available include: full name, phone numbers, addresses, and voting history.
So how does your voter data end up on the Dark Web and what do criminals do with it? According to Dark Web sellers, they get their data from contacts within the government. That’s right! There are very corrupt people working for the states that are selling your information to criminals to then sell it again on the Dark Web.
Is it legal? In most states voter information is considered public record and can be easily obtained. But the caveat is that this information cannot be used for commercial purposes, republished, or posted online. Depending on how the state worker obtained the information, this practice can be legal, but the act of selling it on the Dark Web is illegal.
The most critical part of this crime it that the people selling your information on the Dark Web can combine your voting information along with other breached personal information to create a full profile on you. With this combined information, criminals can then impersonate you with more precision which allows them to get away with more by using your good name.
This can be a frightening thought when it comes to casting your vote this November, but with certain precautions and education of this crime, you can make yourself a smaller target. Make sure you keep an eye on your identity. Here is an informative article on indications your identity has been stolen that monitoring services cannot detect.
The bottom line is that there’s really no better time than the present to become a LibertyID member for identity theft restoration protection. LibertyID provides expert, full service, fully managed identity theft restoration to individuals, couples, extended families* and businesses. LibertyID has a 100% success rate in resolving all forms of identity fraud on behalf of our subscribers.
*Extended families – primary individual, their spouse/partner, both sets of parents (including those that have been deceased for up to a year), and all children under the age of 25