What does it mean if your email address was found on the dark web?

How did your email address get on the dark web?

It’s very common for email addresses to end up on the dark web. After all, it’s one of the most widely used means of online identification. If you want to sign up for services, create social media accounts, confirm and track purchases, or even access your medical or financial data online, you often need to use your email address.

Unlike your passwords, which you must keep private, email addresses are publicly accessible even on the surface web. If your email is on the dark web, it may have been:

• Stolen during a data breach. One of the most common ways for email addresses to appear on the dark web is following a data breach. Usually, the email addresses are part of stolen databases that contain other personal data, like users’ passwords and financial details.
• Sold to third parties. Some websites sell user data to third parties, like advertisers and data brokers. The buyers can have malicious intent and place this information for sale on the dark web, hoping to increase their profits.
• Taken from publicly available data. Email addresses placed on public websites can be easily accessed and placed in databases on the dark web.
• Acquired through malware use. Similar to data breaches, email addresses can be stolen during other types of cyber attacks. For example, criminals may use malware to infect a device to access its files or install a keylogger to view what the user is typing.
• Accidentally leaked. Sometimes an email address can end up on the dark web, not through a transaction or from stolen databases, but because a user accidentally exposed this information, and someone deemed it valuable enough to share on the darknet.

You might not always be able to tell which incident caused your sensitive data to be placed on the dark web. However, if you know about a reported breach, the situation might be concerning. Data that was acquired maliciously might be more likely to be sold to cybercriminals for profit and misused.

It’s also likely that more personal information is exposed when criminals share it. If they have access to your email account, they can check if any previous breaches contained it and search for exposed passwords. They can then use all the combined information to try to access your accounts and use your personal information to commit identity theft.

For instance, if they gain access to your bank account and, through it, discover your Social Security number, they can take out fraudulent loans or funnel funds. With access to your medical information, they can claim your insurance or take out prescriptions in your name. The severity of the crime depends on how much access to your personally identifiable information they gain.

What happens if your email address is on the dark web?

If your email address is on the dark web, you don’t need to panic, but you shouldn’t dismiss it either. Criminals learning your email address doesn’t mean your account will be immediately stolen. However, even this limited information can be enough for cybercriminals to cause trouble. Signs that your email address might be compromised include:

• An influx of suspicious emails. Criminals can buy your email address from databases on the dark web and start targeting it in social engineering attacks through phishing emails and spam. These emails usually imitate legitimate companies and service providers. For instance, scammers might craft a scam imitating your email provider, urging you to reset your password. Once you’ve entered the current password and the new one in the fraudulent password reset fields, criminals can use this information to actually access your account.
• Unfamiliar newsletters. After a breach, your inbox might receive requests to sign up for newsletters and unpaid subscriptions. The newsletters often recommend fraudulent companies or contain spoofed links designed to lure you into giving up your personal information. However, occasionally, the annoying newsletter is just an annoying newsletter, proving your data was sold to a third party. 
• Unauthorized login attempts and password reset requests. With your email address exposed, you might see an influx of requests to verify a login attempt, especially if you have multi-factor authentication (MFA) set up. Criminals might try to brute-force into your account using different username-and-password combinations, or swarm you with password reset requests in hopes you’ll cave and change it to something they can easily guess.
• Attempts to view your information online. Although it might not impact your personal security as much as spoofed emails or password reset attempts, criminals using your email address information to track down your identity, essentially doxing you, can still seriously breach your privacy. They may try to access information related to your employment or family and use it to breach online accounts of people in your circle.

The real concern is whether cybercriminals can find the password to your inbox. The harm that someone can do with your email address includes viewing all your sent and received confidential emails, resetting and stealing other accounts, overriding security settings, and, if you use a service like Google, accessing your contacts, cloud storage, or calendar.

A full email breach directly endangers your digital privacy and increases your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft. And if you’ve fallen into the habit of reusing the same password for multiple online accounts, the threat only escalates — criminals can take your email address and password combination and test it on different websites to see if the login credentials match. If they succeed, they can take over those accounts as well, further increasing the damage caused to your personal data security. The more personal information gets exposed, the higher the risk of account takeover and potential identity fraud.

Don't be an easy target

Tax season deal: Up to 78% off identity theft protection

30-day money-back guarantee

View promotion details.

What to do if your email address is found on the dark web

If you’ve discovered your email address on the dark web, you can take the following eight proactive steps to immediately secure your personal information online.

1. Change your email account password

Even if they don’t have your email account password, cybercriminals may try to breach your email account and gain access to your inbox using brute-force attacks. To protect your email account, create a new complex password. It should contain at least 15 characters, mixing uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Alternatively, you can come up with a passphrase — a lengthy string of words only you know and remember. Do not reuse this password for any other online account and never share it with anyone. 

Pro tip: Use a password manager to generate and store complex and unique passwords so you don’t need to worry about forgetting them.

2. Track information with a dark web monitoring tool

If one piece of your digital data is on the dark web, chances are you’ll find more. However, with billions of records floating around, finding them manually is like looking for a needle in a haystack. You can set up a dark web monitoring tool to search for sensitive data, like credit card details or passwords, in known breach databases. If it finds a match, it’ll issue a dark web alert informing you that your sensitive data is compromised.

3. Update the passwords for your other accounts

You’ve got your new email address set up. Time to reset your other accounts. If you have a habit of reusing the same password for multiple accounts, and at least one of those accounts got breached, the rest are at an increased risk of being exposed. Use strong and unique passwords for all your online accounts. Keep the process simpler with a password manager that creates, stores, and autofills credentials for you.

4. Set up multi-factor authentication

Even if you change your passwords, criminals might try to override your account by spamming you with password reset requests. You can reinforce your account security by setting up multi-factor authentication. It acts as an extra step during your login process and helps with defense against unauthorized access attempts. Usually, you need to use an authenticator app to enter a one-time code or use biometric authentication to verify your logins.

5. Look out for spam and phishing emails

If your email is on the dark web, you might start receiving more suspicious emails than usual. Cybercriminals can spam your email account in hopes you will fall for one of the phishing attacks and give up your personal information, like your login credentials or credit card details, without knowing it. If you receive an email that looks suspicious, don’t click any buttons or download attachments. Carefully review the sender’s email address and compare it to that of a real service provider. If they don’t match, block the spam sender and flag the email.

Pro tip: You can set up Scam Protection to track your data on the dark web, get alerts when your personal information or credentials are exposed, and block malicious websites shared with you in spoofed emails.

6. Scan your device for malware

It’s unlikely that your device was breached simply because your email was exposed on the dark web. However, if you’ve received more phishing mail than usual and have accidentally clicked on suspicious links or downloaded files, it’s good practice to run a thorough device scan to catch any potential malware.

7. Check your financial accounts

Financial accounts are some of the most lucrative data for dark web dwellers. They’re closely tied to your other sensitive data, which can be used for identity theft. Check your accounts for signs of unauthorized use, like requests to take out loans, add another account, or open new credit cards. If you spot these red flags, you can lock or freeze your credit accounts.

Pro tip: If you detect suspicious activity, consider using a credit lock. Unlike a credit freeze, which requires you to contact each of the three major credit bureaus individually, a credit lock can be easily managed using an app. When you lock your credit, you receive alerts about every transaction or request related to your account and can easily reject fraudulent ones. You can lock and unlock your credit at any time or set up an automatic unlock.

8. Report suspicious activity

If you notice suspicious or criminal activity related to your credit and banking accounts, like unauthorized loans, attempts to change or remove your personal information from accounts, or requests to access your data on medical and financial portals, contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) immediately. Create an official incident report so that if your sensitive personal information is misused in the future, you can prove you’ve become a victim of identity theft.

Can you remove your email address from the dark web?

No, it’s practically impossible to permanently remove your email address or other personally identifiable information from the dark web. You can try contacting the FBI or the FTC to request removal, or use a paid service. However, these options often can’t achieve the desired results.

Tracking down who published your personal information on the dark web and issuing a removal request is very complicated. The likelihood of this information reappearing is high, so any attempts to remove your information from the darknet are usually temporary, if at all successful.

Should you change your exposed email address?

Changing your email address after it’s found on the dark web is usually unnecessary. Email service providers typically don’t let users change their user names, so you would need to create a brand new email address and transfer all your accounts to it, which would be a lengthy process. Instead, you can use email masking tools to hide your real email address online.

However, if your primary email account has been compromised and you got locked out, you should consider creating a backup account. Reach out to your service provider’s support team to see if you can regain access to your first account. Keep in mind that if you start using your backup account as your primary inbox, it might also end up on the dark web.

How to check if your email address is on the dark web

A quick way to check if your email address is on the dark web is to use a free dark web scan. It does a one-time check on your email address to see if it’s been flagged in any known data incidents. However, these scans are usually only useful for tracking one type of stolen data and offer limited records. You can only look up your email address, so other data breach incidents might go undetected.

Alternatively, you can use thorough dark web monitoring. These tools actively track the dark web 24/7 and offer more extensive monitoring that includes your email address, login credentials, and credit card numbers. They send out alerts as soon as they detect any exposed data, allowing you to promptly respond to data breaches.

How to protect your email address and personal information

Keeping your email address off the dark web might seem like an impossible task. However, you can definitely improve your online security and protect your other accounts and personal data from ending up in the wrong hands.

• Use a password manager. If you need to update the passwords to your personal accounts or sign up for new services, you can simplify this process with a password manager. It lets you automatically generate new strong passwords, stores them in an encrypted vault, and autofills them whenever you need to log in.
• Only share your email address when necessary. Each new account created with your email address increases the likelihood of it ending up on the dark web.
• Set up a decoy email address. If you need to quickly use a service that requires a new account but don’t want to share your real information, you can set up an email alias. It generates a fake display name that you can link to your email account. Email aliases help you filter out spam and phishing attempts more conveniently.
• Switch on additional security features. Protect your accounts with two-factor authentication (2FA) or switch to passwordless login methods like passkeys to prevent password-related breaches. Use security questions and one-time codes to verify your login attempts.
• Learn to recognize phishing scams. Although scammers have become more proficient with their phishing attacks, creating more elaborate campaigns with the help of AI, you can still learn to spot a phishing email and block suspicious senders from spamming you.
• Use email spam filters. Email filters reduce the amount of spam and restrict access to your inbox. They help automatically detect and flag suspicious emails, lowering the risk of successful phishing attacks or malware affecting your device.
• Secure your connection with a VPN. If you connect to public, unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, cybercriminals can access them and view your data — login credentials included. Protect your important accounts from unauthorized exposure by always using a VPN to secure your network access.

• Get identity theft protection service. Data breaches can be scary, even if they only affect public information. To lower the risk of personal data incidents affecting you, consider signing up for NordProtect’s identity theft protection. It offers dark web and credit monitoring services and provides financial support for eligible identity theft cases, helping you be prepared for the worst-case scenarios.