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Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number

‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number

‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number
19 June 2025

Waiting on the platform for a morning train that was nowhere to be seen, he asked Meta’s WhatsApp AI assistant for a contact number for TransPennine Express. The chatbot confidently sent him a mobile phone number for customer services, but it turned out to be the private number of a completely unconnected WhatsApp user 170 miles away in Oxfordshire.

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