Around 500 Million WhatsApp User's Data is at Risk and Up for Sale on Dark Web

First time in history, the phone numbers of nearly 500 million WhatsApp users have been leaked and are up for sale on the Dark Web. The information got out through an ad posted on a well-known hacking community forum which claimed the database, was up for sale on a popular hacking forum.

The database contains the private information of 487 million WhatsApp users from 84 countries, according to a report by Cybernews.

However, WhatsApp has denied the claims; "The claim written on Cybernews is based on unsubstantiated screenshots. There is no evidence of a 'data leak' from WhatsApp," said a spokesperson.

The US dataset is available for $7,000, while the UK one will cost $2,500, the report further claims.

As per Cybernews, they contacted the seller, he shared 1,097 UK-based numbers as proof. The publication investigated the numbers and confirmed that they were all from WhatsApp accounts but the hacker did not specify how the data was obtained.

This information is used for cybercrime like smishing and vishing, involving a text message to the user. The user is then asked to provide their credit card or other personal details.

Further, the database comprises phone numbers of WhatsApp users from India, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the US, Russia, the UK, Egypt, Italy, Saudi Arabia, France and Turkey. WhatsApp has over 2 billion users globally.

It is not the first instance that a Meta-owned platform has been hit by a data breach. Earlier, over 500 million Facebook users, including 6 million users from India were leaked, allegedly.