E-grocery BigBasket admits to customer data ‘breach’ of 20 million users

Agencies
November 9, 2020

bigbasket-data.jpg

Mumbai, Nov 9: Leading online food and grocery store BigBasket on Sunday admitted to a potential breach of its customer data and that it was assessing the extent.

"We have lodged a complaint with the Bengaluru Cyber Crime Cell and intend to pursue it to bring the culprits to book," said the city-based company in a statement.

The Cyber Cell, however, did not confirm receiving the complaint.

The 9-year-old etailer is funded by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba group, the Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, and the British government-owned CDC group.

"As confidentiality of customers is priority, we do not store their financial data, including credit card numbers and are confident that it (data) is secure," the firm said.

Claiming that it has a robust information security framework, the company said it maintained only email ids, phone numbers, order details and address, which could have been accessed.

US-based third-party cyber intelligence firm Cyble claimed in its official blog on Saturday that though the alleged breach occurred on October 14, it detected it on October 30, validated it on October 31 and informed BigBasket on November 1.

BigBasket provides services in 25 cities and towns across the country, offering to deliver 18,000 products from 1,000 brands through the year.

"Online shopping for food and groceries dramatically shot up since April due to the Covid-induced lockdown, restrictions like social distancing and the pandemic scare," said Cyble in the blog.

"In the course of our dark web monitoring, our research team found the database of Big Basket for sale in a cyber-crime market at $40,000," it said.

The user database is estimated to be about 20 million, with names, email ids, password hashes, pin, contact numbers, addresses, date of birth, location and IP addresses of login.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
November 26,2025

Mangaluru, Nov 26: Mangaluru East police have registered a case following a sophisticated online fraud where a 57-year-old local resident was allegedly cheated out of ₹13.4 lakh after being targeted on Facebook.

The scam began in February when the complainant, while browsing Facebook reels, was contacted by a woman identifying herself as "Lillian Mary George" from London. After establishing a chat relationship, the woman claimed she would visit India in November and bring a significant sum of money.

The trap was sprung on November 15, when the victim received a call from a woman named "Sonali Gupta," who claimed Lillian had arrived at Mumbai International Airport but was detained by customs. The fraudsters convinced the man that Lillian was carrying £25,000 (about ₹26 lakh) in traveller’s cheques and 1 kg of gold (valued at around ₹30 lakh).

Under the pretense of clearing these items, the victim was asked to make numerous online transfers between November 15 and 18 for various bogus charges, including:

•    "Pounds exchange registration"
•    "Customs declaration issues"
•    "Discount charges"
•    "Money-laundering charges"

Believing the fictitious story, the complainant transferred the cumulative sum of ₹13.4 lakh to various bank accounts provided by the fraudsters. He realised he was cheated when the culprits later promised a refund within two days but stopped answering his calls. The Mangaluru East police are now investigating the case, which highlights the continuing threat of transnational cyber fraud using social engineering and promises of fictitious wealth.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.