Cyble, a security research company created a flutter yesterday when they claimed that 4.5 crore Truecaller users’ database is being sold for $1000 on the dark web.
Truecaller is a reputed online repository of phone numbers and names of mobile users, and to filter out spam calls and messages.
They are keen to launch their online payment survice based on UPI, in India soon.
Truecaller has denied this database leak.
Cyble: Truecaller’s 4.5 Crore Users’s Database Is Available For $1000
Cyble researchers found that an entity is selling a massive database of Truecaller users on the dark web. As per the offer listed by a seller, 4.5 crore users’ database is being sold for $1000.
Cycle found the price really low, and decided to investigate further.
To their surprise, they actually did find 4.5 crore users’ database, with sensitive information like Phone Number, Carrier, Name, Gender, City, Email, Facebook ID and others.
In their blog, Cyble said, “As part of our preliminary analysis, we noticed that the information was quite well organised such by state, cities and carrier. The actor must have spent a reasonable amount of time in organising this.”
As per them, the database is from 2019.
Truecaller Denies
Truecaller has categorically denied this news, and have stated that their database is secured, and there has been no leak or hack.
As per them, the data being sold under their name is false.
Their statement said, “There has been no breach of our database and all our user information is secure. We take the privacy of our users and the integrity of our services extremely seriously and we are continuously monitoring for suspicious activities.”
Such a similar sale of Truecaller’s database was reported in May 2019 as well, but nothing substantial came out of it.
Truecaller has said that for such database sellers, they get instant credibility to their offer by stamping Truecaller’s name.
The statement further said, “What they have here is likely the same dataset as before. It’s easy for bad actors to compile multiple phone number databases and put a Truecaller stamp on it. By doing that, it lends some credibility to the data and makes it easier for them to sell. We urge the public and users not to fall prey to such bad actors whose primary motive is to swindle the people of their money,”
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.
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