News

WhatsApp Hacker Is Selling Over 150 Million MENA Numbers

The database contains nearly 500 million phone numbers from users worldwide, and is being sold on a community hacking forum.

Published

4 years ago

December 1, 2022

Nour Nasir

whatsapp hacker is selling over 150 million mena numbers

According to Cybernews, a research-based online publication, a hacker is selling the phone numbers of nearly 500 million WhatsApp users on the Dark Web — a figure which includes over 150 million from across the MENA region.

The data from the breach was posted by a user on a hacking community forum, and Cybernews has sampled the data and confirmed that it’s legitimate.

The reported database contains recent (2022) WhatsApp user information from 84 countries, with millions of phone numbers listed from the USA, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Egypt, and many more.

Of particular interest to readers of Tech Magazine will be that nearly 7 million of the hacked numbers belong to UAE residents, just under 2 million are from Lebanon, and a massive 28.8 million are owned by users from Saudi Arabia.

We don’t know what the MENA phone numbers are valued at, but it’s reported that USA user information is being sold for $7,000, while UK and German datasets have $2,500 and $2,000 price tags, respectively.

Also Read: Netskope Predicts Future Middle East Cybersecurity Trends

After digging a little further into the details of the hack, Cybernews stated that the numbers harvested belong to active WhatsApp users and the data was obtained by scraping, which is thought to violate the app’s Terms of Service.

“In this age, we all leave a sizable digital footprint, and tech giants like Meta should take all precautions and means to safeguard that data,” says Mantas Sasnauskas, Head of the Cybernews Research Team.

Leaked phone numbers often fetch high prices on the Dark Web, as they can be used for marketing purposes, fraud and impersonation.

Related Topics:Cybersecurity Hacking WhatsApp

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News

Samsung And Spotify Offer Free Premium Deal In MENA

Nearly seven in ten streams in the region come from 18-to-34-year-olds — the audience Samsung is hoping to entice into its ecosystem.

Published

6 days ago

August 7, 2026

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Samsung has announced a partnership with Spotify spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, bundling Spotify Premium with select devices across its ecosystem. The headline offer — up to four months of Premium for free — is a first for the region.

Customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Türkiye who buy any OLED or 98-inch television, or any Galaxy S or Z series mobile device, get four months of Spotify Premium. The offer, tiered by market and device, is available at retail and on Samsung.com, and redeemed through the Samsung Promotion and Samsung Members apps.

For Samsung, the strategy is less about free music than about lock-in. The Korean tech giant’s pitch is continuity: a track starts on a Galaxy smartphone through Galaxy Buds on the commute, moves to a Samsung TV and soundbar in the living room, and stays controllable from a Galaxy Watch. The more seamlessly music travels between those devices, the harder it becomes to swap any one of them for a rival’s.

“Technology should bring people closer to the things they love, and few things connect people the way music does,” said Omar Saheb, Regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA. The partnership, he added, gives customers “a genuine reason to choose Samsung for the experience, not only the product”.

Also Read: Shokz OpenFit Pro Review: Open-Ear Audio Finally Grows Up

For subscribers, Premium brings the usual package: ad-free listening, offline downloads, richer audio quality on Galaxy Buds and Samsung sound devices, and Jam, which lets friends build a shared queue.

“At Spotify, we are always working to make every listening moment feel more personal, meaningful, and worth it,” said Rami Jamal, Head of Partnerships at Spotify for South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

The demographics go a long way to explaining the strategy. Across MENA, Türkiye, and Pakistan, nearly seven in ten Spotify streams come from listeners aged 18 to 34, according to the company — precisely the audience Samsung wants inside its hardware ecosystem before buying habits harden.