> if it was a scam, then this was clearly a bluff to try to reassure me, but he had WAY more information about me than I would expect an average scammer to have
you can purchase FULLZ from darkweb marketplaces, these contain name and address and social security number and often come with credit card details too
with that, you can do social engineering like this, you can also remote desktop into any computer nearby to their zipcode (from a different darknet marketplace of compromised computers being rented out) and purchase things online from that, making it less likely to be flagged
the idea that "scammers intentionally do obviously red flag things to weed out discerning people and just target susceptible people" is just one segment of the market. doing smarter more cunning things is entirely available and entirely lucrative
I mean you could try to find the large known leaks and go through them yourself
People just cross reference them and sell individual ID packs one by one
There were 15,000,000 people in the Experian leak alone. Most of that information is still valid, we've just gotten numb to it.
Merchants that care about customer support and reviews will just replace an ID for the consumer if its been used before
There isn't a way to try to find who is in a database without the source databases yourself. Merchants don't tell you how they found the aggregate data, they just have reviews from people that say if it was accurate data or not. You could try and ask a merchant if they have a particular person, but I doubt many merchants have a way to sort that themselves, as the files are no longer in a parseable database by the time it reaches them. The organized networks are corporations and conglomerates with separations of knowledge and duties.
All you would be able to do is purchase a FULLZ and get what you get.
you can purchase FULLZ from darkweb marketplaces, these contain name and address and social security number and often come with credit card details too
with that, you can do social engineering like this, you can also remote desktop into any computer nearby to their zipcode (from a different darknet marketplace of compromised computers being rented out) and purchase things online from that, making it less likely to be flagged
the idea that "scammers intentionally do obviously red flag things to weed out discerning people and just target susceptible people" is just one segment of the market. doing smarter more cunning things is entirely available and entirely lucrative