Lead Hunter
MEDIUM RISKData breach — March 2020
In March 2020, a massive trove of personal information referred to as "Lead Hunter" was provided to HIBP after being found left exposed on a publicly facing Elasticsearch server. The data contained 69 million unique email addresses across 110 million rows of data accompanied by additional personal information including names, phone numbers, genders and physical addresses. At the time of publishing, the breach could not be attributed to those responsible for obtaining and exposing it. The data was provided to HIBP by dehashed.com.
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What happened in the Lead Hunter data breach?
In March 2020, a massive trove of personal information referred to as "Lead Hunter" was provided to HIBP after being found left exposed on a publicly facing Elasticsearch server. The data contained 69 million unique email addresses across 110 million rows of data accompanied by additional personal information including names, phone numbers, genders and physical addresses. At the time of publishing, the breach could not be attributed to those responsible for obtaining and exposing it. The data was provided to HIBP by dehashed.com.
The exposed data included 6 types of personal information. Learn more about what a data breach means for you.
Quick answer — was Lead Hunter hacked?
Yes. Lead Hunter was breached in March 2020. The breach exposed 68,693,853 records including email addresses, genders, ip addresses. This breach has been independently verified. If your email was involved, your data may still be at risk today. Check if you were affected.
Why was the Lead Hunter breach so dangerous?
The Lead Hunter breach exposed 68,693,853 records — that is 68.7M people whose personal data is now circulating on the dark web. The combination of email addresses, genders, ip addresses makes this a medium-risk breach that should be addressed promptly.
Don't wait to find out — check if your email was exposed in this breach now.
What data was stolen in the Lead Hunter breach?
Email addresses — used for phishing attacks and credential stuffing against your other accounts
Genders — may be combined with other breach data to build a profile for targeted attacks
IP addresses — combined with other data, used for identity theft and physical fraud
Names — used to build profiles and target you with personalised scams
Phone numbers — enables SIM swapping attacks and targeted SMS phishing scams
Physical addresses — combined with other data, used for identity theft and physical fraud
Is the Lead Hunter breach still dangerous in 2026?
Yes. Stolen data from the Lead Hunter breach remains dangerous years after the incident. Research shows that over 65% of stolen credentials from older breaches have never been changed by the account holders. Attackers routinely compile data from multiple breaches to build complete profiles, and credentials from 2020 are still actively used in credential stuffing attacks today.
Personal information like email addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth never expire. Even if you changed your Lead Hunter password, the other exposed data can be combined with information from other breaches to target you. Learn more about how long stolen data stays dangerous.
Frequently asked about the Lead Hunter breach
Approximately 68,693,853 user records were exposed in the Lead Hunter breach in March 2020.
Yes. Leaked credentials are actively used in credential stuffing attacks years after a breach. If you reused your Lead Hunter password elsewhere and haven't changed it, those accounts remain at risk today.
Enter your email in the free checker on EmailLeaked. We scan 12 billion+ breach records including the full Lead Hunter dataset and tell you instantly whether your email was exposed and what data was taken.
Change your Lead Hunter password immediately, change any other account where you used the same password, enable two-factor authentication on all important accounts, and monitor for phishing emails over the next 90 days.
Who was affected by the Lead Hunter breach?
The Lead Hunter data breach affected approximately 68,693,853 users who had accounts with the service. With 68.7M records exposed, this is one of the larger breaches tracked in our database of 970+ known breaches.
If you ever created an account with Lead Hunter or used their services, your data may have been included in this breach. Check your email now to find out. You can also read our guide on what to do immediately after a data breach.
If your email was in the Lead Hunter breach
Change your Lead Hunter password immediately
Go to Lead Hunter and change your password right now. Use a strong, unique password that you have never used anywhere else.
Change any account sharing that password
If you used the same password on other sites, change it on every one of them. Attackers test stolen credentials on hundreds of popular sites within hours.
Enable two-factor authentication
Turn on 2FA on Lead Hunter and every important account. Even if your password is known, attackers cannot get in without the second factor.
Check your other accounts for this breach
Run a full email check to see every breach your email appears in — not just this one.
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