Scam, fraud & security help in Hammond, Indiana
Protect Indiana is a plain-language security service for Hoosier households and small organizations. If you live in Hammond or anywhere in Lake County, in the Region in northwest Indiana, we show you for free exactly what a scammer already knows about you — leaked passwords, your posted home address, a forgeable email — and then, if you want it, we close it. No jargon, no fear-selling, and a written plan you can keep.
Free protection for Hammond residents 65+, veterans, and Indiana nonprofits and houses of worship, as our schedule allows. Prefer to read first? See how we help. If you've been scammed: start here.
- 1. CheckWe show you what is leaked and posted about you — free.
- 2. Your planPay once and a plain-English lockdown plan is ready right away.
- 3. RemovalsWe file the people-search removals that post your address.
- 4. On watchOptional monthly watch — only if you ask for it.
What we see around Hammond
Fraud does not respect the county line, but some patterns land harder in Lake County and the Region in northwest Indiana. These are the ones we help Hammond households and small organizations shut down:
- Government and utility impostors. A caller says your power will be shut off within the hour, or claims to be from the IRS, Social Security, or a court, and demands payment in gift cards or an app. No real agency works that way.
- Tech-support pop-ups. A frightening full-screen warning tells you to call a number. That number is the scam.
- Job and check-overpayment scams. A too-good remote job mails you a check, has you buy equipment, and the check bounces after you have paid.
- Account takeovers. A leaked password from an old breach is reused to walk into your email, and from there your bank.
How we help Hammond households and organizations
Everything starts with a free exposure check: type in your email and, in about a second, see which data breaches it turned up in and what was taken — the same public leak records anyone can search. If you want to close what it finds, the Fix is $249, one time — no subscription. You get a lockdown plan built from your own results, in plain English, and we file the people-search removals that post your Hammond address for you while you work through it. Month-to-month On Watch is there if you want ongoing breach alerts, and you can cancel any time.
Because we have no sales team, the person who answers your email is the person who does the work. We serve Hammond the same way we serve the rest of Indiana — remotely for accounts, devices and removals, and on-site where a home network or the house itself needs eyes on it.
Official help for Hammond residents
We are an independent Indiana service — not a government agency — and we will always point you to the free official resources first:
- Report a scam or fraud in Indiana: the Indiana Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, 1-800-382-5516, or file online at in.gov/attorneygeneral.
- Older adults in Lake County: Indiana's Area Agencies on Aging and Aging & Disability Resource Centers, 1-800-713-9023 — free help with fraud, caregiving and benefits, any age or income.
- Report to the federal government: the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov and, for online crime, the FBI at ic3.gov.
- Already been scammed? Do the first-hour steps now: the first hour after a scam.
Other Indiana communities we serve: Indianapolis · Fort Wayne · Evansville · South Bend · Carmel · Fishers · Bloomington · Gary · Lafayette · Muncie · Terre Haute · Kokomo · Anderson · Noblesville · Greenwood · Elkhart · Columbus · New Castle · Greenfield — or see every area.
See what's exposed about you in Hammond
It is free, it takes about a second, and you keep the answer either way.