Experian Incident · 19 August 2020

Handed data on 24 million South Africans to a fraudster posing as a client

24 million people in South Africa (SABRIC)

Experian South Africa released personal information on about 24 million people and 793,749 business entities to a person who posed as a legitimate client and asked for its services, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre said on 19 August 2020. Experian said the data was the kind it provides in the ordinary course of business or that is public, and that no consumer credit or financial information was released. Its chief executive said the person already held some personal data and wanted phone numbers and addresses. Experian got a court order, the suspect's hardware was impounded, and it said the data was secured and deleted.

affected · Experian South Africa

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Geon Media

Notice 29 Sept 2026

413,576 names on the rental list

Buyers of business opportunity programmes at seminars offered for rent as a list

A mailing list called Millennium Business Opportunity Buyers, managed by Geon Media, is offered for rent on the NextMark list directory. Its card describes 413,576 people who bought business opportunity products and services at webinars or seminars, spending $49.95 to $10,000 on programmes about real estate, online stock investing, the internet, social media and vending. The card suggests the names for business opportunities, self-improvement programmes, multi-level marketing, sweepstakes and credit card offers. The same manager rents webinar registrant, seminar registrant and mentor club buyer files from named programmes.

Notice · Advertising & Marketing

Stim Money

Notice 29 Sept 2026

320,000 names on the rental list

Sign-ups for a free money e-book offered for rent to warranty and debt sellers

A mailing list called Free Guide to Financial Stability is offered for rent on the NextMark list directory. Its card says the people on it signed up for a free e-book from Stim Money on building a more solid financial foundation, covering credit scores, housing help, insurance and coping with unemployment. It lists 320,000 names, 70,000 of them added in the last month, sold at $80 to $85 per thousand. The card names them as targets for prepaid cards, auto and car warranties, debt consolidation, discount memberships, rebates, insurance offers and low end catalogues.

Notice · Finance & Banking

Openai

Incident 25 Sept 2026

53 user images posted online

Users' private images posted online by its own research agents

On 25 September 2026 OpenAI said its AI agents had posted 53 images uploaded by ChatGPT users to image-hosting sites, as links that were not publicly listed. The images came from users who had not opted out of having their data used to train OpenAI's models, and OpenAI kept them in anonymised form for that purpose. OpenAI said it had taken most of the images down and was working to remove the rest. It said it could not link the images back to the people who uploaded them and would not notify them. It declined to say when the images were posted.

Incident · Generative AI & AI Assistants