Your information is the ammunition
Every targeted scam in our social engineering guide runs on personal information: where you work, who your coworkers are, when you're traveling, what you just bought. The less of it that's floating around, the harder you are to fool and to impersonate.
Shrink your footprint
- Audit your social media through a stranger's eyes. Employer, hometown, birthday, kids' school, vacation countdowns: that's an identity-theft starter kit and a burglary calendar. Tighten who can see it.
- Post vacations after you're home. The photos are just as good.
- Skip the viral quizzes. "Your first pet + your first street" is literally a password-recovery question.
- Lie to security questions. Your mother's maiden name is public record; there's no rule it has to be true. Store the fake answers in your password manager.
- Give less data out. A store asking for your phone number doesn't need it. Every field you leave blank is a field that can't leak.
When a company you use gets breached
- Change your password on that service, and anywhere else you'd reused it (then stop reusing; see Passwords & MFA).
- Turn on MFA for the affected account.
- Watch for follow-up scams: breach victims get targeted phishing that references the breach itself ("Verify your account after the incident…").
- Register your email at a breach-alert service like haveibeenpwned.com so future leaks reach you before scammers do.
Identity theft: prevention
- Freeze your credit at all three bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion). It's free, takes minutes, blocks anyone from opening accounts in your name, and thaws temporarily whenever you need credit yourself. This is the single strongest anti-identity-theft move that exists.
- File your taxes early, before a fraudster can file a refund claim as you. Consider an IRS Identity Protection PIN.
- Shred documents with account numbers or SSNs; wipe old devices before disposal.
- Review statements and credit reports. You're entitled to free reports at annualcreditreport.com.
Identity theft: red flags
- Bills or debt-collection calls for accounts you never opened.
- A tax return rejected as "already filed," or benefits claims you didn't make.
- Your phone suddenly losing service (possible SIM swap; call your carrier immediately from another phone).
- Missing mail, or a change-of-address confirmation you didn't request.
If it's happening: report at identitytheft.gov. The FTC's site builds you a personal recovery plan and the official paperwork. Then work through our incident guide for the account-security side.