Dating site’s DMs, user details stolen and leaked, hackers claim

The platform, primarily focused on English-speaking users, supposedly had tens of thousands of records exposed, including private user messages.

Social network and dating platform Meet and Chill (MAC) has reportedly had its user’s private details exposed and leaked. Attackers posted the stolen details on a popular data leak site.

Based on a data sample that Cybernews researchers investigated, the leaked details appear to be legitimate. We have also reached out to MAC for confirmation and will update the article once we receive a reply.

Meanwhile, the attackers claim to have stolen over 85,000 records from the dating platform, containing personal and sensitive information. According to the hackers’ post, virtually all details were exposed, ranging from chat room identifiers to private messages, shared attachments and complete user account details.

Needless to say, having your dating platform account exposed may present some privacy concerns. For example, attackers could use the comprehensive dataset for identity theft or highly personalized phishing attacks.

As users often tend to reuse passwords, attackers could attempt to use details exposed in MAC’s leak to penetrate user accounts on other platforms.

Additionally, exposing private conversations, with shared images and videos, creates ample blackmail opportunities for attackers. Users with secrets might be prone to meeting attackers’ financial demands.

Meanwhile, if confirmed, the leak could severely impact MAC’s reputation. Dating platforms are expected to provide users with a higher level of security due to the sensitive nature of information shared there.

However, numerous data breaches in the past several years have involved dating apps. For example, in 2021, a Korean dating app exposed over a million private photos, most of them intimate. Last year, a Muslim-focused dating site left an unprotected environment (.env) file, opening up users to various data-grabbing attacks.