Researchers Trace Nearly 2 Million Emails to Patreon’s 2015 Breach

HEROIC analysts identified a data breach tied to Patreon, dated September 30, 2015, when the crowdfunding platform was hacked and a large amount of internal data was released publicly. Within that larger incident, this record covers 1,987,197 exposed entries, each consisting of an email address. No passwords are associated with this particular set of records.

Why an Email List Tied to Patreon Creators and Patrons Is Valuable to Attackers

Patreon connects creators directly with the people who fund them, which means an email address on this list often tells an attacker something specific: that the person behind it pays for content or subscribes to a creator's work. That context makes phishing emails far more convincing, since a message pretending to be from Patreon about billing or account verification will feel plausible to someone who actually uses the platform. Even without a password attached, a confirmed and active email address is a starting point attackers can build on.

What Was Exposed

• Email addresses of Patreon users, nearly 2 million in total
• No passwords are included in this set of records

Why This Matters

An email address rarely stays on its own for long. Criminals routinely combine lists like this with data from other breaches, matching an email to a password, a name, or other personal details leaked elsewhere. Once that happens, the combined record can be used for credential stuffing against other accounts, targeted phishing campaigns, or broader identity theft. If you have ever reused a password anywhere with the email address tied to your Patreon account, that risk exists independent of what this specific record contains.

How This Database Breach Happened

This incident is classified as a database breach, meaning the records were extracted directly from Patreon's backend systems rather than collected through malware on individual devices. Breaches of this kind typically stem from a compromised server, an exposed development environment, or unauthorized access to production data. Once copied, that data can circulate publicly or privately for years, which is why records tied to a 2015 incident can still surface and matter today.

Check If You Are Affected

If you have ever had a Patreon account, whether as a creator or a supporter, it is worth checking whether your email address appears in this breach. HEROIC's free breach scanner searches more than 400 billion leaked records to give you an instant answer, so you can take steps to protect any accounts that share the same email or password.