Has your home address been leaked or made public online? Here’s what criminals can do with it.

Millions of individuals worldwide have fallen victim to data breaches or careless exposure of personally identifiable information (PII) in 2023, including a home/physical address that can be used in nefarious activities.

Whether through hacks or other illegal data-harvesting practices, the exposure of your data can hurt your privacy as well as your physical and financial security.

Here’s what threat actors can do if they get their hands on your home address:

• Steal your physical mail to gather sensitive information from bank statements, pay stubs, or health insurance notices for late use in identity theft
• Conduct change of address scams – this means that fraudsters can make an unauthorized request to a postal service to change your mailing address and intercept your correspondence.
• Report you for crimes you didn’t commit – a malicious individual can submit a false report or anonymously tip police in your area about a crime you did not commit
• Use your address to set up phony rental ads online, which may lead to scammed renters showing up at your doorstep
• Stalking and trespassing on your property – a malicious individual can use your home address to stalk you and your family or break into your home while you’re on holiday

When combined with other pieces of personal data, inconspicuous details such as a home address can be used to exploit unsuspecting victims to inflict financial and physical harm.

Want to know what the internet knows about you and how you can limit damage from personal data exposure?

Check out one of our digital identity protection services to help you stay on top of data breaches, privacy risks and fraud.

Digital Identity Protection lets you see your digital footprint at a glance, check your breach history, map risk, and all your leaked information: passwords, physical address, and credit card details. And it will advise you what to do next.

If you’re worried about identity theft and the resulting financial damage, you can opt for Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection (for US only), which combines advanced detection technology, real-time alerts, 24/7 US-based support, and identity recovery in a unique solution to help you monitor your medical and financial accounts, alerting your whenever a change in address occurs or loans are taken out in your name.