this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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What the...
...any guides?
I think the point of the post is that they PAID money to the data collectors to get data they themselves don't want collected, thus becoming part of the problem. That said, I have done the free version of this multiple times with great success!
Start finding names. This can be easy, but if you're trying to deal with a subsidiary, a private company, or a massive conglomerate, it might be more difficult. You can start with things like CEO & COO. Search for things like VP/SVP/EVP/Head of Customer Service (or Customer Experience). Depending on the problem you're trying to solve, you might look for more specific job titles like CIO, Technical Operations, Network Operations, Accounts, etc. Get several names for roles that might make sense.
Find the email address format for the company. Common ones are first initial + last name, FirstName_LastName, etc.
Send an email to all of the names you collected in the company's email address format. Hopefully several of the names are reasonably distinct to make it likely you got the right person. Of course, it's unlikely that the CEO is John_Smith3, they're never going to take the numbered address. Be (somewhat) polite, be specific, be as brief as possible; ideally make a reasonable request to resolve the problem. You don't want to come across as an unhinged lunatic and you don't (necessarily) need to threaten any specific action. Just ask for their help resolving the problem.
What happens next? They will likely forward the message to someone who has the ability to solve the problem. That person will contact you and make things happen that everyone else said was not possible. You do need to have reasonable expectations though. If you contact your ISP and tell them their outage cost you $1M in lost business, don't expect much help. But if you tell them you were inappropriately charged $500 for equipment you returned 6 months ago, they'll probably fix that for you.
Helpful places to find names:
My biggest challenge has been with companies that constantly reorg, so I find a name in a news article from 2 years ago and they've already changed roles.
OSINT is the term you're looking for.
Edit: and this particular person was apparently talking about buying the data off signalhire.
OSINT usually consists of collecting all of the publicly available data on a "target" (person or company usually) and correlating it all together to reveal things not explicitly public (or at least not all in one spot). "Open source" intelligence. Term is used by military, intelligence agencies, and pen-testers.