Data breaches → Adult-FanFiction.Org
Was your data in the Adult-FanFiction.Org breach?
2018 · adult-fanfiction.org · ~186,082 accounts exposedCritical severity · 10/10
Adult-FanFiction.Org (adult-fanfiction.org) suffered a data breach in 2018 that exposed around 186,082 accounts. If you had an account, some of your personal data may be circulating in leaked databases. The fastest way to know is to check your own email — free, in about 30 seconds, no password required.
What happened
In May 2018, the website for sharing adult-orientated works of fiction known as Adult-FanFiction.Org had 186k records exposed in a data breach. The data contained names, email addresses, dates of birth and passwords stored as both MD5 hashes and plain text. AFF did not respond when contacted about the breach and the site was previously reported as compromised on the Vigilante.pw breached database directory.
Breach details sourced from Have I Been Pwned, the industry-standard breach database. Risk analysis by Nullivo.
What was exposed, and why it matters
Not all breaches carry the same risk — what matters is which fields leaked. Here is what the Adult-FanFiction.Org breach exposed and what each item actually enables:
Attackers replay leaked passwords across other sites (“credential stuffing”). Because most people reuse passwords, one leak often unlocks email, shopping and banking accounts elsewhere.
Date of birth is a permanent identifier used to verify identity by phone. Combined with a name and address it is often enough to impersonate you.
Links this leak to your other accounts — a reused username lets anyone build a profile of you across platforms.
Puts you on spam and phishing lists, and confirms to attackers that you hold an account with this service — which makes impersonation emails more believable.
What to do if you were affected
These steps are ordered for this specific breach — the most urgent action given what leaked comes first.
- Passwords: Change this password everywhere you have reused it, starting with your email account — whoever controls your email can reset everything else.
- Dates of birth: Never confirm your date of birth to an inbound caller — hang up and dial the organisation back on a published number.
- Names and usernames: Search your usual username to see what else it exposes, and use distinct handles for sensitive accounts.
- Email addresses: Treat any message referencing this service with suspicion, and never act on links in unexpected emails.
- Check whether your own email appears in this breach — run a free scan to confirm before you spend time on the steps above.
How urgent is this now?
This breach is over 8 years old. Old credentials still cause harm — leaked passwords from a decade ago are still tried against new accounts every day.
Passwords are the reason breach age matters less than people expect. Leaked credentials are compiled into wordlists that get tried against new services for years afterwards, so a password exposed here is unsafe to use anywhere, ever again.
Remember: a breach can't be "un-leaked" — once a database is out, it exists in countless copies. The goal is to make the leaked data useless: change what can be changed, lock down what can't, and remove what has been republished.
Frequently asked questions
What data was exposed in the Adult-FanFiction.Org breach?
The Adult-FanFiction.Org breach exposed passwords, dates of birth, names and usernames, email addresses. Attackers replay leaked passwords across other sites (“credential stuffing”). Because most people reuse passwords, one leak often unlocks email, shopping and banking accounts elsewhere.
How many people were affected by the Adult-FanFiction.Org breach?
Around 186,082 accounts were exposed, making it a mid-sized breach.
What should I do if I had a Adult-FanFiction.Org account?
Change this password everywhere you have reused it, starting with your email account — whoever controls your email can reset everything else. You can check whether your own email appears in this breach with a free Nullivo scan — no password required.
Breaches that exposed similar data
If the Adult-FanFiction.Org breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.
- Was your data in the Color Dating breach? (2018, ~220,503 accounts)
- Was your data in the Ajarn breach? (2018, ~266,399 accounts)
- Was your data in the Florida Virtual School breach? (2018, ~542,902 accounts)
- Was your data in the europa.jobs breach? (2019, ~226,095 accounts)
- Was your data in the Fashion Nexus breach? (2018, ~1,279,263 accounts)
- Was your data in the Royal Enfield breach? (2019, ~420,873 accounts)