The one thing scammers check before targeting you online

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com. Most people assume scammers need to hack something. A database. A password. A bank system. They don't. In most cases, everything a scammer needs to target you is already sitting online, publicly available, completely legal to access and surprisingly easy to find. Here's what they're actually looking at before they ever pick up the phone. Data broker listings often include sensitive details like your address, phone number and relatives, making removal a critical first step. (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson) There's an entire industry built around collecting and selling your personal information. It's called data brokering, and most people have never heard of it. Right now, without your knowledge or consent, your details are being published by dozens of websites, including: None