Over the past few years, the number of cybercrimes in our country has tripled. Online scammers steal usernames and passwords from social media users and hack into systems that provide access to financial resources and email services. Using specialized websites, anyone can buy any information about you.

Alexander Tananakhin, an attorney at Barristers, LLC, explained where and how criminals can obtain your personal data and how much it costs.

Today, personal data is the most common target of crime, and obtaining it is much easier than we could have imagined.

Across the vast expanse of the World Wide Web, there are numerous services where your personal data can be purchased. Of course, these services aren’t free. The cost depends on the number of requests and ranges from $50 to $200. For security reasons, payment is made in cryptocurrency (bitcoins).

Nearly 70% of all cybercrimes are committed for financial gain—to steal the money you keep in your bank accounts and on your cards.

For example, complete personal data on an individual based on a cell phone number or full name (photos, email addresses, phone numbers, passphrases, relatives) can be obtained for 600 UAH. For information from a bank, including a scanned copy of a document, sellers charge 800 UAH. Transaction history for bank accounts costs 2,000 UAH. Data on border crossings, criminal records, pending criminal cases, and vehicle registration information is valued at 1,000 UAH on the black market. One of the most expensive and sought-after services on the digital information market is detailed records of phone calls and text messages. The price for such data is $200, and it is provided within 2–3 days of the order being placed.

With full access to your bank card information—including passwords and security codes—a scammer can easily steal all your money.

It is virtually impossible to investigate such thefts from bank cards. Stolen funds are converted into electronic money or exchanged for another currency in a matter of seconds, and within a few minutes can be withdrawn from an ATM at a foreign bank on the other side of the globe.

Data from the border service’s registry on border crossings can be purchased within an hour for 1,000 UAH. And, for example, the complete database of Ukrainian voters (34 million records) is offered for sale on the black market for as little as $600.

Every day, our personal data and account information accumulate at an astonishing rate at government agencies, taxi services, online stores, courier services, classifieds websites, grocery delivery services, when paying utility bills, when purchasing transportation tickets, when scheduling doctor’s appointments or visiting medical laboratories, as well as in other areas where customer identification is required.

The holders of this personal data themselves pose serious competition to cybercriminals on the black market for personal data. For example, an employee of a government agency may leak a database of personal data in exchange for a certain fee.

The turnover of gray-market services on the black market for information in 2019 amounted to $300 billion. Alongside the black market for personal data, there is another equally active and in-demand market for commercial financial information.  On average, for $1,000, you can purchase tax data on all your business partners, as well as information on open accounts and the fixed assets of a company’s employees.

For $500–$1,000, you can obtain information from customs records. For example, you can find out information about your business partner abroad, exactly where you import your goods from, and at what value they are declared at Ukrainian customs.

Today, the financial services market is seeing a surge in activity from microfinance companies that provide online lending services. These microfinance companies serve 6 million customers. This means that companies offering quick loans have access to 6,000 photographs of passport copies and tax identification numbers, which could be stolen by cybercriminals or sold by unscrupulous employees of these same companies. On average, sellers ask for $1,500 for a set of 300 passports and ID numbers. If the documents have been used and sold multiple times, the price for such a set (passport and ID number) will be no more than one dollar.

Ukraine’s Personal Data Protection Law provides for a number of protection mechanisms and requirements, but, as we can see, these regulations are virtually ineffective and remain merely on paper. In reality, the protection of your personal data depends on you. But in today’s world, it’s impossible to do without digital technologies, banks, logistics companies, and online shopping. More often than not, the victim of a cybercriminal or online scammer voluntarily provides the information that is later used to commit crimes.

To protect yourself from cybercrimes, lawyers advise against using unverified online payment services whenever possible. You should also be extremely cautious about suspicious websites that ask you to register, provide your personal information, or upload copies of documents.

Don’t forget to periodically change the passwords for all your accounts and financial services. You should change these passwords at least once every two months.