Data brokers (meibo-ya) collect personal information - names, addresses, phone numbers, ages, occupations - and sell them as lists. Legitimate brokers provide lists for direct mail and marketing, while illegal ones sell leaked data from the dark web to special fraud groups.
Data sources include corporate data breaches, recovered discarded documents and hard drives, survey and sweepstakes submissions, resold alumni and membership directories, and social media profile scraping. Elderly individuals' data commands premium prices as "high-value lists."
The 2017 Personal Information Protection Act amendment strengthened regulations, requiring record-keeping for data providers and verification obligations for recipients. However, illegal brokers ignore these rules, and enforcement hasn't kept pace.
Reduce your risk by avoiding unnecessary personal information registration, not casually entering sweepstakes, keeping phone numbers off social media, and never sharing personal details with suspicious callers. See why strangers have your number for detailed leak pathways.