Horror as cosmetic secrets held for ransom
— Towie glamour girls speak out on nightmare
COSMETIC surgery secrets of nearly 500,000 people have been stolen by hackers — and used in a blackmail attempt.
Russian crooks took online forms submitted to The Harley Medical Group, detailing body issues.
Last night boob job recipient Amy Child told of her shock at the hack.
Ex-Towie beauty Amy, 23, has spoken openly about her two boob jobs. But she insisted patients should be guaranteed privacy.
And she was shocked that the Russian crooks snatched the forms and tried to extort cash from the firm.
Amy, whose ops were not carried out by the company — which has 21 UK clinics — said: “I think it’s awful.
“A lot of people like to keep procedures private. It’s usually because you’re not confident about your body and that’s why you change it.
“If you’re in the public eye you have to discuss this, but if you’re not and it’s suddenly out there it must be terrible.”In addition to surgery secrets, the stolen info has potential clients’ names, ages, phone numbers and addresses.
The forms relate to procedures such as tummy tucks, boob jobs and liposuction.
Amy’s Towie co-stars Lauren Pope and Frankie Essex — who have both had boob jobs — were also shocked.
Lauren, 31, said: “Having any sort of surgery is very personal. The thought of it going public is devastating.”
Frankie, 26, said: “It’s scary. Those poor people will be panicking.”
The thieves, using a Russian email address, struck late last month and The Harley Medical Group, based in Thames Ditton, Surrey, has now apologised to those affected. It has also beefed up its website security.
Bosses told the police and Information Commissioner, but said clinical and financial details were not accessed.
A spokesman told how the firm acted after the crooks got in touch, demanding cash.
He said: “We became aware an individual had deliberately bypassed our website security, gaining access to contact information from initial enquiries in an attempt to extort money from the company.”
An Information Commissioner’s Office spokesman said: “We’ll be making enquiries.”
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