# 1.5 million Crime Stoppers tips exposed online, including tipsters' names

> A CBC investigation found 25 years of tips stolen from Crime Stoppers' software vendor. More than 850,000 include personal information.

- Published: 2026-10-21T13:00:00.000Z
- By: The Circuit Staff
- Type: News
- Topics: Security
- URL: https://thecircuit.ca/posts/2026-10-21-crime-stoppers-tips-leak/

The promise of Crime Stoppers is anonymity. A CBC investigation found that promise broken at enormous scale. More than 1.5 million tips submitted to Canadian Crime Stoppers programs over 25 years are circulating online, [MobileSyrup reports, citing CBC](https://mobilesyrup.com/2026/10/21/canadian-crime-stoppers-tips-leak-report/).

The data came from P3 Global Intel, the company Crime Stoppers contracts to run its tip database. A hacktivist group stole it in March, and Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. non-profit, later made it available to researchers and journalists.

What's in it:

- More than 850,000 tips with personal information, including addresses and phone numbers for tipsters, the people they named, staff and police.
- More than 4,300 tips with a tipster's full name, even though Crime Stoppers tells people not to give one.
- Tens of thousands of email addresses and licence plates, and hundreds of banking details tied to cash rewards.
- Tips connected to high-profile cases, including the Barry and Honey Sherman murders.

CBC found that staff had flagged hundreds of cases where a tipster's identity was compromised, but the information was left unredacted. The reporting didn't include a response from Crime Stoppers or P3.

**Why it matters:** People who tipped police about violent crime may now be identifiable by the people they reported. If you've ever submitted a tip, assume the details could be out there. Watch for doxxing or contact from strangers, and talk to police if you feel at risk. More broadly, it's another case of a sensitive public-safety system run by a private vendor without enough oversight.