‘They knew the hospital that I’d stayed in’: Todd Woodbridge targeted after Medibank breach
Five phone calls in a row and Todd Woodbridge knew something was wrong.
The former Australia tennis champion fielded call after call from an unknown number on Tuesday, as Medibank hackers threatened to release private customer data on the dark web.
Todd Woodbridge.Credit:Getty Images
Woodbridge said he didn’t answer the calls, but read the message – they were asking him to pay outstanding medical bills.
However, the 51-year-old, who is recovering from a mild heart attack he suffered last month, had no outstanding invoices from his time in hospital.
“I had a little health blip with a minor heart issue and, obviously, I ended up in hospital,” he said.
“I think I’m one of those people that have been scammed by the Medibank situation, I’m a customer of theirs,” Woodbridge told 3AW radio on Wednesday.
Woodbridge said the alleged scammers had personal information, including the hospital he had stayed in, and were asking for his bank details.
“The message was that I had bills to pay from the hospital stay that I had now. [However] I had no invoices, no nothing. They knew the hospital that I had stayed in, and they wanted me to ring back and give an account number and want me to pay over the phone,” he said.
“Obviously, I wasn’t going to do that.”
Medibank revealed on Monday that the data – including health claims and personal information – of 9.7 million current and former customers was stolen by the hackers in October
On Tuesday, the company said it would not negotiate with the hackers or pay their ransom demand and apologised to customers for the data breach.
The stolen data was released on the dark web shortly after. Medibank said it expected the group to continue releasing files.
Former doubles champion Woodbridge said he didn’t believe the hackers knew he was a public figure, but instead pointed to the Medibank hack as the most likely cause.
“I think that is the beginning of what we’re going to be getting plenty of if you’re a Medibank customer, because it’s pretty obvious that my details were all out there,” he said.
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