Account balances leaked: what it means and what to do
Risk level: medium. Can you change it: no. Found in 9 breaches in this directory.
What this data is
The amount of money, credit or stored value recorded against your account at the moment the data was taken. It appears in banking, brokerage, wallet, gaming and loyalty breaches.
The risk on its own
A balance cannot be spent by whoever reads it, so nothing leaves your account because of the leak itself. The real harm is selection: criminals sort the stolen list by balance and work the richest entries first. A high figure moves you to the top of that queue.
The risk combined with other data
With your name, email and phone number attached, the balance turns into a shopping list for social engineering. Callers who already know roughly what you hold sound like genuine bank staff, which is the whole basis of the fake fraud team scam. It also tells criminals which accounts are worth a SIM swap attempt.
How criminals use it
A caller claiming to be the fraud team recites your approximate balance, then talks you into moving it to a safe account they control.
Investment and crypto recovery scammers target the largest holders on the list because the payoff justifies weeks of grooming.
A SIM swap is aimed at you specifically, since the attacker can see the account is worth the effort.
Extortion messages claim inside knowledge of your finances and use the correct figure as proof.
What to do now
Change the password on the affected account and make it unique, then store it in a password manager.
Switch that account from SMS codes to an authenticator app or a passkey, so a SIM swap cannot unlock it.
Set up transaction alerts for every payment above a small threshold so movement is visible immediately.
Agree a rule with yourself now: nobody who phones you ever needs you to move money, and you always hang up and call the number on your card.
Ask the provider whether a verbal password or an extra callback check can be added to your account.
Frequently asked questions
Can someone take my money because they know my balance?
No. A balance is a number, not access. It matters because it tells criminals you are worth targeting, so the follow up scam is aimed at you personally.
Should I move my money to a new account?
Only if there are unexplained transactions. Changing the password, using an authenticator app and turning on alerts protects the existing account in most cases.
Why would a shop or a game hold my balance?
Stored credit, gift card value and in game currency are all balances, and breached lists of those get sorted by value in exactly the same way.
Breaches that exposed this data
Neteller: 2010-05-17, 3.6M accounts, Account balances, Dates of birth, Email addresses, Genders, IP addresses, Names
ClixSense: 2016-09-04, 2.4M accounts, Account balances, Dates of birth, Email addresses, Genders, IP addresses, Names
Breach data sourced from Have I Been Pwned, used under CC BY 4.0. Additional breach metadata provided by XposedOrNot. DataExposed is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.