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Facebook Users data hacked and sold by the telegram bot

27 January, 2021 - By Bhanu

Internet users facing new danger or threat. Now hackers are using Telegram as hacking tool. According to reports "Hackers" are using telegram as tool to collect the facebook users data or contact details access by the "Telegram" Messaging app. Hackers target those users whose data breaches two years ago.

According to research, In 2019 about 42 crore records identified as a unsecured server having 150M users from the US and UK. Hackers used telegram bot as users detail access.

The Telegram bot lets users enter either a phone number to receive the corresponding user’s Facebook ID, or visa versa.The bot claims to contain information on Facebook users from the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and 15 other countries.

In November, Facebook fixed a critical bug in its Messenger app that could have allowed hackers to connect audio calls without the knowledge or approval from the app user.

The vulnerability could have been used to spy on Facebook users via Android phones.

The security researcher has reported that users from over 100 countries are affected. In India over 6,162,450 users are impacted by this.

According to Motherboard, if someone has a person’s phone number, then they can find their Facebook user-ID with the help of Telegram bot. But in order to access the information, they will be required to pay. The person who created the Telegram bot is selling a phone number or Facebook ID for $20, which is around Rs 1,460 in India. The bot is also selling Facebook users’ data in bulk. For 10,000 credits, the bot is charging $5,000 (around Rs 3,65,160), adds the report.

Gal notes this is a serious privacy concern. He also said the issue was severely under-reported when it was first highlighted and today the database has become much more worrisome. He told Motherboard, the data can be used for “smishing and other fraudulent activities by bad actors,” adding that Facebook should notify users of this problem.