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How much would you sell your personally identifiable information for? PeopleFinders is asking for just $5 to give anyone willing to pay access to a detailed snapshot of your life, including your education, criminal records, property and assets, employment details, and digital footprint on social media platforms.[1]
PeopleFinders, a 25-year-old data broker, has launched a new online dating service called Stud or Dud. Amid increasing romance scams, Stud or Dud may help people avoid catfishing, ghosting, and online scams by giving them information about potential dates before you commit to meeting up with them.
However, just as easily as a dater can use Stud or Dud, a malicious actor could also use it to obtain a detailed dossier on another person for just $5. This information could then be used for identity theft, phishing scams, and other forms of fraud.
Here’s everything you should know about Stud or Dud and the steps you can take to remove your personal information from the internet.
Stud or Dud describes itself as an AI-powered dating information platform that helps users verify details about potential dates they met online. All they have to do is enter a name, phone number, or first name and city to get a snapshot of the other person’s life.
Stud or Dud uses publicly available information, such as court records, business records, property records, address history, marriages, bankruptcies, and similar sources. The company says it uses public records and other permitted sources rather than private surveillance data.
This means that the information pulled by Stud or Dud is already available through public records and other sources, but the website puts it all together to give you a quick report on the person you are about to meet.
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A sample report from the website shows the various information Stud or Dud can pull from these records. The report includes categories such as:
However, the person being searched has no idea that their information is being shared with someone else — they don't receive a notification when someone searches for them. PeopleFinders explicitly markets searches as private, with no notification or read receipt sent to the person being searched.
Stud or Dud has rolled out three different plans, starting at just $5, which allows anyone to run one profile check.
The $8.97-per-month plan comes with five saved profiles and alerts, along with features such as match confidence scoring, source comparison, and an AI compatibility rating.
There’s also a higher-tier $19.97-per-month plan, which comes with 25 saved profiles, deeper categories, and enhanced insights. You can add-on a Power-Up 10-Credit Bundle for just $10 to any plan.
Genuine daters can use Stud or Dud to find their ideal match, but malicious actors could use it to gather information about potential victims as well. One could argue that Stud or Dud pulls only information that’s already available in the public domain.
However, a threat actor would usually need to scour various sources, such as financial records, business records, criminal records, employment details, and digital footprints, before building a profile of their target.
Stud or Dud, on the other hand, brings much of this information together with just a click of a button and at a cost of just $5 to anyone willing to pay.
Such information could be used by threat actors to target victims with personalized phishing emails, tricking them into giving away account details, or installing malware. Attackers could also use the information for social engineering, gather additional information about their targets, or make it easier to impersonate them.
Moreover, having all this information in one place doesn't necessarily make it accurate. Public records can be old, incomplete, or linked to the wrong person, while AI can misinterpret the information it finds.
“This is 100% going to be used by stalkers and creeps,” said a Reddit user, reacting to the news. Another user took a more sarcastic view, saying, “Ahh the surveillance state, let us all live in it.”
In early September, a nonprofit called CivAI held demonstrations of a powerful AI system that could build detailed dossiers on anyone with just a click. The tool was built using GLM-5.1, an open-source Chinese AI model, and connected to various data brokers, with subscriptions starting at just $500.
You can't necessarily erase every piece of information about yourself from the internet, but you can take steps to limit how easily it can be found and shared.
Stud or Dud says its service doesn’t use illegal means to obtain information about you. However, the privacy issue is how much easier this makes it to access information that was previously scattered across different sources. For anyone with $5 to spare, a service like this can turn a collection of public records into a ready-made profile of another person.
Thankfully, Stud or Dud gives you the option to submit a privacy or opt-out request. You can also consider third-party data broker removal services and identity theft protection tools to reduce how much of your personal information is available online and how easily it can be found.
Top-rated data removal service that scrubs your info from 420+ data broker sites automatically
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