When someone wants to scam or impersonate you, they often start by reading what is already public. This is called OSINT, which stands for open-source intelligence: gathering freely available information about a person.
Small details add up
On their own, most facts about you look harmless. Your dog’s name. The gym you go to. Your manager’s name. Your birthday. The problem is what happens when someone collects them together. A handful of « harmless » details is often enough to build a convincing picture of your life.
What they do with it
- Make a scam feel personal. A message that names your bank, your employer, or a recent trip feels real, so you are more likely to click or reply.
- Guess your account-recovery answers. Security questions often ask for your first pet, your school, or your mother’s maiden name, and people post exactly these things online.
- Impersonate you. With enough detail, someone can message your friends, family, or bank pretending to be you, and sound believable.
- Doxxing. This means publishing your private details, like your home address, to frighten or harass you.
An example of the pieces fitting together
Imagine your public posts show your employer, a photo of your office pass, and a comment mentioning your assistant by name. Separately, none of that seems sensitive. Together, it is enough for a stranger to phone your workplace, drop the right names, and sound like they belong.
You do not need to disappear from the internet. You just want to make sure the details that unlock your accounts and your identity are not sitting in plain view. Setting accounts to private and removing contact details from public profiles takes away most of the raw material.