Data breaches → Patreon
Was your data in the Patreon breach?
2015 · patreon.com · ~2,330,382 accounts exposedCritical severity · 10/10
Patreon (patreon.com) suffered a data breach in 2015 that exposed around 2,330,382 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 October 2015, the crowdfunding site Patreon was hacked and over 16GB of data was released publicly. The dump included almost 14GB of database records with more than 2.3M unique email addresses, millions of personal messages and passwords stored as bcrypt hashes.
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 Patreon 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.
Direct financial fraud, plus convincing scam calls that quote your real card or account details to establish trust.
Home addresses feed people-search and data-broker sites, which republish them publicly. They also make phishing far more convincing and, in the worst cases, enable real-world harassment.
Personal correspondence can be used for blackmail or social engineering, and often contains other sensitive details you have forgotten sharing.
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.
Also listed in this breach: Email addresses, Passwords, Payment histories, Physical addresses, Private messages, Website activity.
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.
- Payment or bank details: Contact your bank, ask them to monitor or reissue the card, and check statements for small “test” transactions.
- Home addresses: Get your address removed from data brokers — they re-list roughly every four months, so this needs repeating.
- Private messages: Consider what was discussed on this service and whether anything needs changing (shared passwords, personal disclosures).
- 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.
This breach put your details on data-broker sites
Because Patreon exposed home addresses, this is one of the breaches that feeds people-search and data-broker sites. Those sites scrape leaked databases, combine them with public records, and republish the result as a searchable profile — which is how a single breach turns into a permanent public listing. Removal works, but brokers typically re-list within about four months, so it has to be repeated.
See our broker-by-broker removal guides →
How urgent is this now?
This breach is over 11 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 Patreon breach?
The Patreon breach exposed passwords, payment or bank details, home addresses, private messages, 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 Patreon breach?
Around 2,330,382 accounts were exposed, making it a large breach.
What should I do if I had a Patreon 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 Patreon breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.
- Was your data in the ClixSense breach? (2016, ~2,424,784 accounts)
- Was your data in the Ashley Madison breach? (2015, ~30,811,934 accounts)
- Was your data in the Teracod breach? (2016, ~97,151 accounts)
- Was your data in the WHMCS breach? (2012, ~134,047 accounts)
- Was your data in the Nulled.cr breach? (2016, ~599,080 accounts)
- Was your data in the Cannabis.com breach? (2014, ~227,746 accounts)