For those that are feeling bad for being gullible -- don't feel guilty!  I think a lot of average citizens are unaware that what seems like personal information, i.e. name, address, phone number (unless private listed with phone company), employer, school, etc. is actually public record and not personal at all.  If I know someone's first and last name and what county they live in I can look them up and find out their address and, if they're a homeowner, when they closed on their house, how much it's worth, and how much they pay a year in taxes.  This is all public record.  Before the invention of the internet you found this information by going to the courthouse in your county/municipality and paying a small fee for the record (usually a couple of dollars).  You can still do this, but the internet makes it easier as this information is usually available online through your county/city government's website (under auditor or clerk of courts).  Marriage, birth, and death certificates, and arrest records can be found the same way.  Things like adoptions records, social security numbers, and medical information are considered private records and are not made public.  Everyone should try searching/googling their name once or twice a year.  You'd be amazed what's out there publicly!  Almost forgot to add that siblings and spouses related to you are easy to find out, as well, especially with the popularity of sites like ancestry.com and family tree sites where things like census reports and military records are available in one location.  However, I believe census reports are not made public for 40 years.  Not sure about military records.  I'm a trained historian that works in a museum, so I had to take classes in graduate school on how to do family histories, house histories, etc. using public records.