Report reveals over 500 million WhatsApp users’ phone numbers on sale

In recent years, cybercrime has gotten more common across globe. According to a Cybernews report, 487 million WhatsApp users’ phone numbers have been hacked and sold on a “well-known” hacking forum. This private data is allegedly contained in a database from 2022 that includes users from 84 countries, including United States, United Kingdom, Egypt, Italy, and India.

All of the numbers allegedly belong to “active” WhatsApp users, according to the hacker who committed the breach. According to the report, the stolen database contains the phone numbers of over 32 million US users and over 11.5 million UK users. However, it appears that the breach most severely affected Egyptian users, including about 45 million users possibly at risk.

The hacker further asserts that they have access to the phone numbers of over 35 million active users from Italy, almost 10 million users from Russia, more than 6 million users from India. According to the report, Cybernews was able to contact the hacker and collected a sample of 1097 UK and 817 US user contact information from the list.

Upon investigation, its researchers discovered that all of the numbers belonged to active WhatsApp users. WhatsApp has over two billion monthly active users worldwide, and if the report is true, we may be dealing with one of the biggest data theft of the Meta-owned messaging app.

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The hacker withheld more specific information about how they acquired these numbers, but the report theorises that “scraping” may have been one of the methods. The method violates WhatsApp’s terms of service because it includes mass data collection, frequently using bots.

According to reports, a US database of these numbers is being sold for around $7,000, while databases of people from the UK and Germany are reportedly being sold for $2,500 and $2,000, respectively. The controversy surrounding a data breach has previously involved Meta and its platforms.

As per the reports, an issue that the social media giant repaired in 2019 exposed the personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from the more than 100 countries, with over 6 million files on users in India. A previous seller of phone numbers or Facebook user IDs for 20 dollars or in bulk for 5,000 dollars from a Telegram bot had the same information available for purchase.

WhatsApp has not yet responded to the Cybernews report. Nevertheless, it is recommended to exercise caution before tapping any links or picking up any calls from unknown numbers that could be scams.

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In recent years, cybercrime has gotten more common across globe. According to a Cybernews report, 487 million WhatsApp users’ phone numbers have been hacked and sold on a “well-known” hacking forum. This private data is allegedly contained in a database from 2022 that includes users from 84 countries, including United States, United Kingdom, Egypt, Italy, and India.

All of the numbers allegedly belong to “active” WhatsApp users, according to the hacker who committed the breach. According to the report, the stolen database contains the phone numbers of over 32 million US users and over 11.5 million UK users. However, it appears that the breach most severely affected Egyptian users, including about 45 million users possibly at risk.

The hacker further asserts that they have access to the phone numbers of over 35 million active users from Italy, almost 10 million users from Russia, more than 6 million users from India. According to the report, Cybernews was able to contact the hacker and collected a sample of 1097 UK and 817 US user contact information from the list.

Upon investigation, its researchers discovered that all of the numbers belonged to active WhatsApp users. WhatsApp has over two billion monthly active users worldwide, and if the report is true, we may be dealing with one of the biggest data theft of the Meta-owned messaging app.

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The hacker withheld more specific information about how they acquired these numbers, but the report theorises that “scraping” may have been one of the methods. The method violates WhatsApp’s terms of service because it includes mass data collection, frequently using bots.

According to reports, a US database of these numbers is being sold for around $7,000, while databases of people from the UK and Germany are reportedly being sold for $2,500 and $2,000, respectively. The controversy surrounding a data breach has previously involved Meta and its platforms.

As per the reports, an issue that the social media giant repaired in 2019 exposed the personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from the more than 100 countries, with over 6 million files on users in India. A previous seller of phone numbers or Facebook user IDs for 20 dollars or in bulk for 5,000 dollars from a Telegram bot had the same information available for purchase.

WhatsApp has not yet responded to the Cybernews report. Nevertheless, it is recommended to exercise caution before tapping any links or picking up any calls from unknown numbers that could be scams.

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