Meta-owned WhatsApp on Monday denied that cellphone numbers of 487 million customers have been stolen and placed on sale on a “well-known” hacking group discussion board.
Cybernews first reported that the dataset allegedly comprises WhatsApp person information from 84 nations and cellphone numbers of over 32 million customers from the US, 11 million from the UK, and 10 million from Russia.
“The claim written on Cybernews is based on unsubstantiated screenshots. There is no evidence of a ‘data leak’ from WhatsApp,” an organization spokesperson instructed IANS.
The purported record is a set of cellphone numbers and never “WhatsApp user information”.
According to the report, the hacker claimed to have a big variety of cellphone numbers belonging to the residents of Egypt (45 million), Italy (35 million), Saudi Arabia (29 million), France (20 million), and Turkey (20 million).
The hacker was promoting the US dataset for $7,000, the UK for $2,500, and Germany for $2,000, in line with the report.
Cybernews researchers have been capable of get in contact with the hacker. Upon investigation, the researchers discovered that each one of them have been energetic WhatsApp customers.
However, the hacker didn’t specify how they obtained the information, suggesting they “used their strategy,” and that each one the numbers belong to WhatsApp customers, stated the report.
This database can be utilized by hackers for spamming, phishing makes an attempt, id theft, and different cybercriminal actions, the report had stated.