Data breach
ApexSMS data breach
23,246,481 accounts · breached April 15, 2019
This is a spam list: a collection of addresses used for sending bulk email. Being in it mainly means more spam and phishing. No account of yours was necessarily broken into.
What happened
In May 2019, news broke of a massive SMS spam operation known as "ApexSMS" which was discovered after a MongoDB instance of the same name was found exposed without a password. The incident leaked over 80M records with 23M unique email addresses alongside names, phone numbers and carriers, geographic locations (state and country), genders and IP addresses.
What data leaked
- Email addresses
- Genders
- Geographic locations
- IP addresses
- Names
- Phone numbers
- Telecommunications carrier
What to do if you had an account
- Turn on two-step sign-in. Enable two-factor authentication where the service offers it, preferably with an authenticator app or a passkey. A leaked password alone is then not enough to get in.
- Expect targeted phishing. Leaked contact details are used to write convincing fake messages that mention the breached company or your real name. Do not click links in unexpected emails or texts about this account; go to the site by typing its address.
- Watch for scam calls and SIM swaps. Be suspicious of calls and texts that claim to be from your bank or a courier. Ask your mobile operator for a port-out or SIM-change PIN if it offers one.
Check your email at haveibeenpwned.com
We do not run email lookups ourselves. The search is done on haveibeenpwned.com, the service this list comes from.