Money Bookers data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the January 2009 breach of Money Bookers. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Money Bookers data breach exposed 4,483,605 accounts from moneybookers.com in January 2009. The data taken includes dates of birth, names, physical addresses and email addresses and 2 more kinds of data.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 30 Nov 2015, 7 years later. It is the 214th largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Money Bookers’s breach included 6 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| Dates of birth | Used to prove who you are to banks and phone companies. |
| Names | Makes scam messages personal enough to believe. |
| Physical addresses | Used to prove who you are, and for scam letters and parcels. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
| Phone numbers | Expect scam texts and calls, and a higher risk of someone moving your number to their SIM. |
| IP addresses | Roughly where you were when you used the service. |
What to do
- Check whether you’re in it.Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned. It tells you which breaches it appears in, Money Bookers among them, without showing the data.
- Distrust messages that mention Money Bookers.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
- Put a PIN on your phone account.Ask your mobile provider for a port-out PIN, so no one can move your number to their SIM.
- Freeze your credit.In the US, free at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. In Australia, ask Equifax, Experian and illion for a ban. No one can open credit in your name while it’s on.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 7 years later.
Breaches often stay hidden for a long time. Until it came out, people in it had no reason to change anything.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- Sony, June 2011, 37,103 accounts
- Evite, August 2013, 101 million accounts
- Neteller, May 2010, 3.6 million accounts
- ClearVoice Surveys, August 2015, 15 million accounts
- JobStreet, March 2012, 3.9 million accounts
- Modern Business Solutions, October 2016, 59 million accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
- ^ Troy Hunt. “Money Bookers”, Have I Been Pwned, added 30 Nov 2015. Breach data licensed CC BY 4.0.
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- moneybookers.com, Money Bookers’s website