The FTC's IdentityTheft.gov walks you through the recovery steps. What it can't do: remove your name, address, and family connections from the data brokers and people-search sites that fed the attack. That's what Delist does — and we keep pushing until it stays off.
Run a free scan →Once an attacker has enough of your data to commit one fraud, they typically have enough to attempt several more. The follow-on attempts draw from the same pool of broker-published context that was available before the first incident.
Whatever data fed the original attack is still searchable: your name, an SSN from a breach, an address from a people-search site, family links from a broker. Resolving the fraud doesn't touch the underlying exposure.
Credit-card fraud, tax-refund fraud, medical fraud, and social-engineering all draw from the same personal-data context. Reducing the broker layer once cuts the rate across all the follow-on categories.
The FTC playbook closes the fraud and remediates accounts. It does not remove you from the breach corpus or the broker layer. That work runs in parallel and doesn't happen automatically.
The standard fraud alert from a credit bureau lasts 1 year. After that, the credit-side defense weakens unless you re-file or upgrade to a permanent freeze. Privacy work helps cover the gap.
The credit freeze stops new fraudulent accounts. Removing your data from brokers and people-search sites takes away what a follow-on attack would lean on: your address, your family, your history.
Run a free scan →The free scan covers data brokers, people-search sites, and known leak databases. You see exactly what is still findable about you right now.
We file removal requests across the brokers we cover, with escalation where it applies: your address, family relationships, employer, and address history.
Weekly checks across known breach sources. If your identifiers surface in a new leak, you're notified so you can act before someone else does.
Brokers can re-add data after ingesting new source records. We run a full scan every month and resubmit supported removals when a listing returns.
| Manual opt-outs | Generic privacy tools | Delist.ai | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage approach | Sites you identify | Varies by provider | Brokers, people-search sites, AI, breach records |
| Breach corpus monitoring | You check periodically | Often basic | Monthly |
| Family coverage | Repeat per person | Varies | Add members |
| Re-listing detection | You notice it | Periodic | Monthly |
| Legal deletion requests | Draft yourself | Rarely | We escalate |
| Time investment | Hours per month | Setup + check-ins | We handle filing + follow-up |
Report at IdentityTheft.gov. The FTC issues a free recovery plan plus a sworn affidavit you can give to creditors. Simultaneously, place a fraud alert with one of the three credit bureaus (the other two get notified automatically). These two actions are the foundation.
Yes. Federal law since 2018 made credit freezes free at all three bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion). You freeze each bureau separately. Lift temporarily when you legitimately need credit. Don't pay for "credit lock" services. Those are paid versions of the free freeze with weaker legal protections.
Reduces the data available for follow-on attacks. Identity theft usually arrives as the first incident in a series. The attacker who has your data uses it for credit fraud, then tries tax-refund fraud, then medical fraud, then social-engineering attacks against your bank. Each follow-on relies on the same broker-published context: your name, address, family, employer. Removing that context cuts the follow-on rate.
Straightforward credit-card fraud: 1–7 days. Loan, lease, or government-benefits fraud: weeks to months. Medical fraud or synthetic-identity fraud: years. Speed of detection matters most. The FTC's IdentityTheft.gov recovery plan walks through each subtype.
Almost certainly. A series of large breaches in recent years exposed billions of records, including Social Security numbers for most US adults. Most identity theft traces some piece of data to one or more of those events, or to aggregators that recombine published breach data. You can check your specific breach exposure at /check/breach-history.
Background reading: Identity theft and data brokers
A free scan shows what is still findable about you on data brokers and people-search sites. No card required.
Run a free scan →Free scan. No card required.