In one of the biggest data breaches on record, the phone numbers of nearly 500 million WhatsApp users have been leaked and are up for sale. The database, for sale on a popular hacking forum, contains the private information of WhatsApp users from 84 countries, according to a report by Cybernews.
WhatsApp denied the allegations. “The claim written on Cybernews is based on unsubstantiated screenshots. There is no evidence of a WhatsApp ‘data leak’,” a spokesperson said.
The person who put the data up for sale claims that the United States has 32 million user records. It also has millions of users in Egypt, Italy, France, the UK, Russia and India.
According to the report, the US dataset is available for $7,000, while the UK one will cost $2,500.
Cybernews said that when they contacted the seller, they shared 1,097 UK-based numbers as proof. The publication investigated the numbers and confirmed they were all from WhatsApp accounts.
However, the hacker did not specify how he obtained the data.
This information is often used for cyber crimes like smishing and vishing, both of which involve texting the user and asking them to click on a link. The user is then asked to provide his credit card or other personal data.
This isn’t the first time a data breach has hit a Meta-owned platform. Last year, the personal data of over 500 million Facebook users, including 6 million records from India, was allegedly leaked. The leaked data then included phone numbers and other details
