Rumours doing the rounds on social media on April 20 claimed that popular food delivery and transport service Bolt was hacked, with the perpetrators gaining access to clients’ bank details.
The rumour quickly spread by evening, with some recommending that users should remove their bank cards from Bolt’s apps and others asking whether this rumour had been verified.
A post in the popular Facebook group The Salott, which has since been deleted, said “Delete your Bolt account. They have been hacked and hackers are hacking users’ Revolut”. The post went on to ask whether or not this rumour was true.
WhatsApp messages with similar warnings were also shared on Thursday and Friday.
The rumour later grew to also include Wolt, another food delivery service.
‘Malicious rumours’
Times of Malta reached out to Bolt which confirmed in a statement that “we are not under any attack”, describing the rumours as “malicious”.
“Bolt doesn’t have any credentials to access anyone’s offline or online bank accounts,” the statement said.
It added that the company had not been contacted by any users who believed that they had been hacked.
A Wolt spokesman also told Times of Malta that they had not been the victim of a hack, saying that they immediately contacted their security team once the rumours started spreading to ensure that there had been no breach.
No police reports filed
Some online comments suggested that “multiple” police reports had been filed.
Times of Malta contacted the police to verify whether this was the case. The police confirmed that no reports related to the rumoured hack were lodged across any of their departments or branches.
Verdict
Both Bolt and Wolt confirmed that they had not suffered a hack and that none of their customers had contacted them to inform them of any suspicious activity.
There have also been no police reports about a potential hack. Police confirmed that they are treating this rumour as untrue.
The claim is therefore false as the evidence clearly refutes it.
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Rumours of a hack were spread on Thursday afternoon.
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Originally published here.
