Data Enrichment Records 2016.0 Data Breach
ObscureIQ Breach Intelligence
Moderate SeverityWebsite / service breach
Unknown Data Broker Exposure 1: 8.2 Million Consumer Records Exposed
Consumer profiling and data enrichment records.
Verified by ObscureIQ Intelligence
43/100Breach Risk Index
38Data Value
10Market Recency
3317dSince Breach
Breach Intelligence Summary
Entity: Data Enrichment Records · Actor: Unknown · Sources: 2 references
Attack: Unknown
Profile: Data Broker / Enrichment Exposure · Consumer profiling and data enrichment records · Darknet-sold enrichment profile corpus · Global
Timeline: Breach (2016-12-01) · Indexed (Jun 08, 2017) · Year (2016.0)
Exposure: Undisclosed records · 14 fields: Credit Status, Date of Birth, Donation History, Email Address, Family Structure, Financial Profile, Full Name, Homeownership Status, Investment Information, Job Information, Phone Number, Physical Address, Purchase Preferences, Relationship Status
Status: Compilation
Executive Summary
In December 2016, over 200 million data-enrichment profiles were found for sale on the darknet, including about 8.2 million unique email addresses. The profiles carried extensive attributes: names, phone numbers, physical addresses, dates of birth, job titles, marital status, family structure, home-ownership status, income levels, net worths, financial investments, credit status, buying preferences, and charitable and political donations. The claimed Experian source was denied by the company.
ObscureIQ assessment: Financial and political-donation attributes tied to identity are especially dangerous for scams, extortion, and influence operations; the data is broker-compiled, so individuals never knowingly provided it.
Breach Impact
This is among the most sensitive profiling data in the corpus: financial status (income, net worth, credit, investments) combined with political and charitable donations and household attributes enables highly precise targeting, discrimination, and manipulation.
About Data Enrichment Records
This record is a set of "data enrichment" consumer profiles compiled by data brokers to append rich demographic and financial attributes to individuals, not a breach of a single organization.
Why They Hold Your Data
Consumer data enrichment providers compile names, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, demographic attributes, household details, inferred interests, and linked identifiers so they can profile people and append missing fields to existing records. Their workflows center on record matching, identity resolution, attribute expansion, and resale or downstream data delivery.
Recent Developments
More than 200 million such profiles were found for sale on the darknet in December 2016; a seller claimed the data came from Experian, which Experian denied, though the data was found to be legitimate.
Data Points Exposed
14 verified field types
Credit Status High
Date of Birth High
Donation History
Email Address
Family Structure
Financial Profile High
Full Name High
Homeownership Status
Investment Information High
Job Information
Phone Number
Physical Address High
Purchase Preferences
Relationship Status
Field names are shown in full for clarity and search visibility. Canonical machine keys are emitted only in this page’s structured data.
Exploitation & Downstream Threats
Threat Activity:High
Primary downstream threats:
Threat vectors:
- Fraudulent credit application
- Identity verification bypass
- Targeted political harassment & doxing
- Phishing, credential stuffing & account takeover
- Household targeting
- Loan fraud & targeted financial scams
- Name-based social engineering
- Mortgage & deed fraud
- Vishing & authority impersonation
- SIM swapping, vishing & SMS phishing
- Physical stalking, mail fraud & identity verification
- Social engineering context
- Romance & family emergency fraud
Recommended Actions
If you believe your information may be included:
Enable MFA Everywhere
Turn on multi-factor authentication on email first, then financial accounts.
Report & Recover
If you spot misuse, start an official recovery plan and report fraud.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened in the Data Enrichment Records breach?▾
In December 2016, over 200 million data-enrichment profiles were found for sale on the darknet, including about 8.2 million unique email addresses. The profiles carried extensive attributes: names, phone numbers, physical addresses, dates of birth, job titles, marital status, family structure,…
What data was exposed?▾
Verified fields include Credit Status, Date of Birth, Donation History, Email Address, Family Structure, Financial Profile, Full Name, Homeownership Status, Investment Information, Job Information, Phone Number, Physical Address, Purchase Preferences, Relationship Status.
What should I do if I was affected?▾
Change reused passwords, enable MFA, and (if identity or financial data is involved) freeze your credit and monitor your accounts.
Sources & References
Every claim on this page is traceable. This breach draws on:
Breach Index
ObscureIQ Intelligence
ObscureIQ proprietary analysis
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