How Bol fell victim to a “fake data breach”: new trend in cybercrime

A hacker claims to have obtained the personal data of 400,000 Belgian customers of Bol (part of Ahold Delhaize) and is offering that data for sale on the dark web. But what at first glance appeared to be a major data breach turns out to be more of a bluff.

Suspiciously cheap offer

The case came to light when a user on a dark web forum announced that they had a database containing Bol’s customer information. For just 100 euros, one could purchase the entire dataset, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and payment details.