Seoul: SK Telecom Co., which reported a massive data breach earlier this year, has declared that a batch of client data purportedly being sold by a hacking group is not genuine, indicating that the sale is likely a scam. The company addressed the situation on Tuesday, assuring that the claimed data has never been leaked.

According to Yonhap News Agency, SK Telecom officials stated, “After analyzing sample data, website screenshots, and file transfer protocol screens posted on the dark web, we concluded that all of the information is fake, and the website does not exist within our company’s system.” They further affirmed that “the 100 GB worth of data as claimed by the hackers was never leaked.”

The statement from SK Telecom follows claims by a global hacking group, identified as Scattered Lapsus$, which announced on its Telegram channel the sale of SK Telecom’s client data for US$10,000. The group alleged that 42 South Koreans had already shown interest in the purchase. The data purportedly includes sensitive information such as customers’ IDs, names, phone numbers, emails, addresses, and birth dates.

Adding pressure, the hacking group issued a threat to SK Telecom, insisting on negotiations or threatening to release the data of all 27 million users if their demands were not met.

In response, South Korean authorities are actively working to verify the facts surrounding these claims. Notably, SK Telecom had previously reported in April that a cyberattack on its network servers might have compromised the private data of its entire user base.