How Scammers Get Your Address

Conroe, TX -- A recent spike in scam phone calls has some Houston-area residents worried. For weeks reports have been trickling in that scammers are trying to con suburban residents by claiming to be from law enforcement agencies or from credit card companies.

When the mark says that he or she doesn't know what the scammer is talking about, the scammer responds with the mark's address. The fact that the scammer or scammers know their mark's address has made some of the victim's concerned.

Want more Conroe and Montgomery County news? Click here for our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts.

The thing is, most people don't know just how easy it is to get a person's address and telephone number off the internet. In Texas, all central appraisal districts post property records online.

The searchable records, which are publicly available, list a property owners' name and address. Nothing is required to view the records -- no email address sign up, no secure login, no proof of residency. It takes literally 30 seconds to a minute of searching to pair an address or a person's name with a home phone number.

There are free sites and pay sites that will provide home phone numbers and home addresses. Digging around to find more personal information may take a little more time, but it isn't difficult.

Getting someone's birthday can be as easy as searching their name. All too often people post happy birthday messages on publicly available sites like Twitter or Instagram.

As an example, we chose a Conroe ISD teacher at random. The only criteria being that he or she currently worked for the district. Our choice was April Gottlick, a kindergarten teacher at Armstrong Elementary.

Through White Pages.com, cross checked with the Montgomery County Central Appraisal District, we found Gottlick's address and on her class website we found her cell phone number. Neither webpage asked for any kind of login information. Out of respect for Gottlick's address we won't link to the information.

And that, in a nutshell, is how scammers get your address.