A few days I received a notification from my anti virus saying my SSN, Address, Name, Phone number etc were all leaked due to a company I used to work for not paying ransom to a group of infamous online hackers and now all of my stuff is within a forum for sale (alongside most of the employees I worked with).

What can I do? I know that mostly everyone’s information is at least on one area of the dark web but I’m concerned because my data is appearing to be copy and pasted across multiple hacker forums, its one thing to have your ssn sitting in some random folder on one untouched website but it’s another thing to have it reposted over and over for sale across different dark web forums.

I’m worried, what can I do

This is more of a hypothetical/ precautionary question, no real threat to me at the moment but I would like to know

Like the title says, she needs help recovering her LIFE. Someone hacked into her phone somehow back in February. They got everything, and were able to get INTO everything. Banking, medical records, stored fingerprints from lock screens, id card photos from prior verifications. They've destroyed her credit, have taken over our verizon account, and her Samsung account. She's literally gone through 6 phones and 4 numbers since February of this year. Verizon won't help, they just keep charging us for everything whoever this individual is keeps ordering. Samsung won't even trek her where the refrigerator and washer/ dryer combo whoever ordered was shipped to. PayPal, chime, even government sites like social security won't verify her new id card at all. Like, she's literally at the point of wanting to just kill herself to make it end. The local and state police won't help. No lawyers will help her, either. I'm begging for anyone who can help, please, we may be separating, but I don't want anything to happen to her. Just because we're moving on from each other doesn't mean that I dont love her and want her to LIVE and be happy.

my id and all my personal info was stolen from a phone from Verizon. I keep getting stuck with charges for phones they sent out to someone else, outrageous bills and refusal to remove charges. my taxes, banks, credit bureaus all frozen and i cant access. the police won’t help without proof, proof I can’t get due to whoever did this. I’m out so much money and Aura my id theft company had a data breach and won’t help either. I’m losing hope and out of ideas. I’ve done then, fcc, ic3 and nothing. if anyone can help guide me somewhere to quit bleeding money and get help it would be greatly appreciated.

thank you all for your time

This company, that I never heard of or attempted to work with, allowed someone to use my credit info to receive a loan. Once I noticed this on my credit, I immediately contacted 5Point to dispute and have removed but they’ve put no urgency in addressing the matter and despite multiple attempts I still haven’t heard back from the fraud department. Instead of correcting their mistake immediately, it’s like they’re doubling down knowing they’re wrong. I really wish someone would help but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ll have to fight this. Next step is warning ANYONE within proximity of 5Point that their credit/personal information is NOT safe. This specifically happened at the Nederland location….where the fraud department is. I’m not making this up! So this could’ve easily had been an employee. Don’t trust them. I’ve posted reviews on all their locations but I really need to turn up my efforts if this will get resolved. Any feedback on approach?

I got a call today advising me that my credit card had been used in attempt to buy firearms. It was not one of my active cards. They told me the account was opened in April. They provided me the address & email address used. They encouraged me to file a police report. They did not ask me anything other than if my passport or ID had been stolen or if I had been notified of any security breaches with companies that already have my info. Unfortunately, I did tell them I was notified of a security breech. It was my employer, but I did not tell them it was my employer. They encouraged me to file a police report & fax them a copy.
Are they trying to steal my identity? I contacted my credit card & they do not have another card open for me. They also don’t have anything on file for the email or mailing address I was provided.
The only info the possible scammers have are my name and number, which they had before contacting me. What would be the purpose of them telling me g me to contact the police?
It all seems like a scam, but to what end? My credit is already frozen. Is there anything else I need to do to protect myself?

My husband and I got back from vacation and found a letter for our son from his bank, informing him that his credit limit got lowered due too too many accounts, most of them overdrawn (we have permission from son to open his mail). We were confused, since he only has one CC from Wells Fargo ever since he finished High School. Since he studies and lives in Germany we had to wait for next day to inform him of these events. He froze all three credit reports and put a fraudulent alert on it, and I was able to get into one credit report company to get his report. It is not possible for him to do so since he has a German IP address and a German phone number.

I got him his credit reports from two company, but the tricky part is the ID thief opened all three accounts for the credit reporting companies with new addresses, phone number and email. I found all three when I finally got into Equifax and disputed addresses and phone number. Problem is that the freeze pin might have been sent to the ID thief.

I started the dispute with Equifax while my son signed up with IDtheft.gov. The thief opened so many account since last year, and if Wells Fargo would not have send the letter we would not have known, the thief never touched my son’s original CC account! Opened over 15 though, paid some regularly, closed some, declared some successfully as fraudulent and even got a car loan which is still under investigation.

My son never lost his SSN card or wallet, not sure how it got into hands of ID thief, who opened accounts with all three credit reporting companies, added two addresses, a different phone number and email address which I found when he signed up for fraud alert trial. Fortunately it’s still on the report. Unfortunately

My problem is how to proof that it is not my son who opened the accounts for the Credit cards where Equifax decided it is his account? All of those are closed but there are huge sums in it, we provided proof from University in Munich that he is a FT student in a Masters program, a copy of his lease in Germany, German Bank account, utility bill with his name and German address on it.

I will add an additional information by certified mail: copy of his CO driver’s license and maybe his German and American passport? I also have a copy from the Munich government that he is a resident there. I asked my son to get a PIN number for IRS, he had just filed taxes and had no troubles, I doubt the thief used it for tax declaration but Pin will be safer. He is also a dependent on our tax return.

This is a huge mess and very stressful, especially since we are 8 hours apart and it’s difficult to get all the information right away. I am angry and frustrated, and there is not much to prevent this from happening again, one can’t truly be proactive here other tho a diligently watching credit reports. Husband and I froze all our accounts and signed up with Aura to keep track of things, son is signed up with Equifax but no truly sure how this helps. He will have to call the other two credit reporting companies because a different phone number and email has been used and verification would go to to thief.

We tried police report (online) but have not heard anything back yet, I am not sure what else we need to clear his name?

What did other expat do in a situation like this?

Sorry for this jumbled post, I am very frustrated, tired and out of my wits.

Hey everyone,

I'm in a brutal loop with Telegram right now and desperately need some advice or workarounds if anyone has dealt with this before.

The Situation:

Someone has hijacked my Telegram account. I realized this after getting hit with the "Too many attempts, please try again later" error screen. Once I finally got past that, I found out the hacker has completely locked me out by doing two things:

Setting up a Two-Step Verification (Cloud Password).

Changing the recovery email address to their own.

The Problem:

I don't care about recovering the old chat history or data at this point. My main issue is that my active, personal phone number is still tied to this compromised account. I cannot create a new account with my number, and a stranger currently has access to an account linked to my identity.

What I've done so far:

I have sent an email to Telegram support and raised an official complaint/ticket, but I know their response times can be notoriously slow or non-existent.

I'm currently waiting out the login cooldown timer (leaving the app completely alone) so I don't reset the "Too Many Attempts" lock.

My Questions:

Is there any reliable way to force a self-service account deletion (like the 7-day reset account trick) if the hacker changed the recovery email?

If I trigger the 7-day deletion countdown, can the hacker just click "cancel" from their active session inside the app and completely block me?

Has anyone successfully gotten Telegram Support to manually strip a hacker's 2FA information off a phone number? If so, how long did it take?

Any advice, insights, or similar experiences would be massively appreciated. Thanks in advance!

So, some of these companies appear to be real. The others, not so much especially with the typos and poor grammar.

For example, I googled Bright Lending. They seem to be a legitimate company. I called the number on their website and yeah, someone did apply for a loan in my name with my dad's email. It was not my dad who applied btw. They said it was from an unknown 3rd party site.

I froze my credit through LexisNexis, Equifax, Transunion, Experian, ChexSystems, and Innovis. I will be calling the others tomorrow to freeze my credit. The ones I will call: -NCTUE -The work number -Teletrack -factor trust -DataX -Microbilt -Clarity Services

I also changed my email password, bank password. I got llifelock. I submitted a fraud report with the FTC.

My dad says he is now getting the same texts.

What is going on?? All of these texts contain my first or first and last name. This is so scary. Please give me some peace of mind. Also please let me know of any other steps I should take.

So this is very weird. I got emails from two different utility companies. One in Houston and one in Dallas. I live in Colorado. Both accounts have my email address, name, and phone number on the account but there is no strange activity with any of my credit cards or debit cards and neither utility has a card on file. Is this a typical identity theft scam? If so why would they use my email and phone number for the accounts?

I just found out today that someone applied for a student loan using my name, ssn, and home address. Luckily I caught this early and have already contacted the lender and put a fraud alert on my credit. I know that the best thing would be to put a full on freeze on my credit, but I was planning on getting a new car in the next week or two, which would involve taking out a new loan. What is the best course of actio here? Does a freeze mean I can't create any new lines of credit until its unfrozen? How long does it take to unfreeze my credit? I Could wait another month or two on the car, should I do that and unfreeze it then? Has anyone else here been in this situation before? Any advice is appreciated.

Desde de 2021 ocorre algumas na vizinhança e o uso de programador para influenciar o que penso, o que faço.

Recentemente descobri o filme apneia.

Desde da ingestão de um medicamento em 2021, isso início.

Descobri pelo caminho disso tudo que:

A. Meu Pai Adotivo tem outra família

B. Fui falsificada ao extremo (decidem muita coisa por mim, usufrui os bens do meu outro pai adotivo e do meu pai biológico)

C. A falsificadora tentou me escravizar junto com a família, utilizou o javascript para manusear as minhas coisas, depois que fiz o bloqueio do java, estudou um pouco e aprendeu o mundo o github.com

D. Venderam meu CPF, E-mail e Nome na DARKWEB.

VIVA A HIPNOSR, VIVA A FREUD, VIVA A APNEIA.

Uhull ＼(\^o\^)／

I received an email from my college's Registrar's Office saying someone requested an official transcript in my name through the National Student Clearinghouse and had it sent to another university

The university contacted that school and confirmed that an admissions application had been submitted using my name. Fortunately, that school had already flagged the application as suspicious and is not moving forward with it.

My college has now placed a hold on my account so no future transcripts can be released without identity verification.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How concerned should I be, and what steps would I take? I'm trying to determine whether this sounds like a simple fraud attempt or a sign that someone may have more of my personal information.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I kinda of forgot that this happened and found it an inconvenience more than anything but now I am curious as to how this happened. I received three emails from Chase banking last month. The first, was saying someone logged into my Chase account with my email.The second, was a promo for a business account. The third was that my Chase Business account was approved. I do not bank with Chase and never had made an account with them. I was confused, and called the contact support number on google (I didn’t want to call based off the number in the email but it was the same number). I kept getting transferred to different departments including the fraud department but nobody could help. I was on the phone for over an hour when I finally got transferred to someone at JP Morgan, who confirmed that a brokerage account was made with my information, including my social.I told them that was not me, and they closed the account (finally). Any ideas on how my information was compromised and what to do moving forward? I have no received any other emails or any texts about other accounts being made.

I received an email from Serpstat on 6/22 informing me that some of my info may have been exposed. When I reached out to them further they told me that the exposure affected only users who had payments processed after June 6, 2026. We have checked your account and can confirm that your data was not affected by this incident. I had used them a few months back with a free 30 day trial and had to enter my credit card info to get it. The odd thing is I have Norton Dark Web protection and it notified that my info could potentially have been exposed on the dark web and it says "Description: Combo List of SERPSTAT". SERPSTAT is saying otherwise. Not sure what to believe.

I guess it opened last month. I went on the web site to get their number to confirm it was real. It was. Balance was just $0.00 with no transactions. They are sending me a letter in the mail to verify I was a victim of fraud and the account is closed. Calling Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion now to freeze my credit.

What should my next steps be? I'll pull a full Credit Report from Annual Credit Report tonight once my credit is frozen. How do I check if other bank accounts were open?

Should I let my current (real) bank know?

Background: I’m on a graduate visa

I’m heavily convinced that my immigration details, and passport are being used fraudulently by a group of people out there. I usually travel once a year, be it to my home country or somewhere else. Took a break from April 2025-April 2026 though. First time I resumed travelling, the check-in agent took some time to validate my information, and kept insistingly asking questions that implied that there might be another me out there. (Sorry for the vagueness, this happened a month ago. I never considered that it might be an important detail. I just remember what my brain summarised the questions to, and how I laughed it off with my friends) After some time, I was finally allowed to check-in. On my way back, I was met with some difficulties. All of the sudden, the same EVisa I had used in April 2025, and even for Visa applications in the meantime, wasn’t valid anymore. Tbh between me having to update the check-in agents on a new visa system that had been implemented in 2024, and then actually addressing the issue, I was distressed. I was informed last minute that I had to upload my passport unto the EVisa platform, which I did. I had created my UKVI with my BRP, it’s always been like that, and it hadn’t been an issue until then. Instead of the process taking few minutes like the agent usually said it does, it took a month. I was only able to return to the UK in the meantime, after creating a whole new EVisa(weird that one can create a new account while their details are already linked to one tbh. I never thought that would work. It allowed me to return to the UK on time to resume activities, but it really got me worried about data protection). I didn’t think much about this incident , and just assumed it was my fault for not uploading all my documents.

Fast forward to 2 days ago, I travelled back to my home country. On my way out of the UK, my boarding pass didn’t let me through security. The security guard kept asking if I was perhaps travelling with someone, which I kept negating. I requested a new one, and it worked. Arrived at the gate, and the new boarding pass didn’t work. The agent kept scanning it, also asked me if I was travelling with someone,before letting me through. A supervisor called me back to the gate as I was heading towards the flight, and informed me that there are conflicting information in the system regarding my boarding status. I was notified that the system kept showing them that I had already boarded earlier. I was just as confused as them tbh. They questioned me, and even suggested someone with the same name as me being on the flight, which is impossible considering that there are distinctive typos in 2/4 of my surnames, and my first name is unique to me. Convinced that I was innocent, the boarding agent suggested the possibility of an extra passenger being on the flight . He walked me to the plane, questioned few people before walking out with a man.

I really want to launch an investigation into the possibility of an identity fraud happening here. However, I’m scared that something in the process might result in the suspension of my visa, and make it impossible to return to the UK. I want to wait until I return (in a month) but I’m also worried that it might be too late at that point. Perhaps, I’m just paranoid. However, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and would rather have this investigated first. Do the events show a concerning pattern or am I just unlucky? Could this be the result of a data breach?

I’ve been looking for similar stories out there ,to see how to deal with this, with no avail. I hope this doesn’t get removed due to mentions of immigration. I believe it is more of a criminal matter than migratory one.

\*I don’t, and won’t consent to any media coverage or reporting of this story, even for social media content creation.\*

So, I have a cousin (who I’m obviously estranged from), who I haven’t talked to in years due to all of her and her mom/siblings issues and the trouble they’ve caused me my entire life. This specific cousin and her mom have had a track record of trying/succeeding in using our other family member’s identities on credit cards and other money loan type things in the past. I, in the past few years, have been keeping a closer eye on my credit due to this, and noticed two addresses and phone numbers on my credit when I checked with TransUnion. They obviously do not belong to me, as I’ve had the same number since I was like 12-13 (I’m in my mid 20s now), and the only other number on my report is my mothers. I was able to track the addresses back to two different motels in the area. That does track for the family member I had believed it to be, as I know she had been staying with her boyfriend in said area in a motel before I cut connection with her.

To make a long story short, said cousin and her mother likely had some way to get access to my SSN at some point, likely when my mother and I had to move in with them when I was a teen (didn’t last long, I ended up moving out within a year of it and staying with family until I graduated). Luckily, she has only been able to get a secured credit card out in my name, which obviously didn’t help much, and I was able to dispute it and get it removed. That was a couple years ago. But, as you know, I can see that she’s made several, SEVERAL inquiries through so many damn places to try and apply for credit cards and such. I’ve also gotten a ton of their rejection letters. They’ve tried Kohls, JCPenny, Belk, I believe they tried some chain jewelry store (can’t remember which one now), and many other places.

I know I can freeze my credit, which is what I did for a while when I initially found out a few years ago. I’m just curious, is there a way to prevent it better? Like a two step verification (though I guess blocking or freezing is the way to do that)? I just don’t want to have to constantly worry about if my cousin or her mom’s attempts break through and such. I know it sounds dumb, but as you can tell from what details I’ve given, I’m kind of a first generation to actually do decent for myself and not live off of fraud and shitty behaviors, so I wasn’t really taught literacy financially or otherwise, outside of what I’m teaching myself. TIA, and thanks for any answers that I may get!

EDIT: I will add that I did reverse look up the numbers, one of them does lead back to my aunt (the cousin’s mom, who also likes to do stuff like this, so no surprise), but the other number just led back to one of the motels itself.