Seoul, Sep 16 : The science ministry said on Tuesday it has launched an official probe into a purported attempt to sell personal data allegedly leaked from South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co.

The move came after a global hacking group, Scattered Lapsus$, posted on its Telegram channel that it would sell SK Telecom's client data for US$10,000, adding that 42 South Koreans had already made contact, reports Yonhap news agency.

"After being aware that a global hacking group has seized SK Telecom's client data and is seeking to sell it, we requested the mobile carrier to submit related materials and plan to check the facts through on-site inspections," the Ministry of Science and ICT said.

The group claimed the data includes customers' IDs, names, phone numbers, emails, addresses and birth dates.

The group also threatened SK Telecom, saying it must engage in negotiations or all of the 27 million users' data would be released.

The company reported in April that private data of its entire user base may have been leaked in a cyberattack on its network servers.

The government also recently launched a probe against No. 2 mobile carrier KT Corp., which reported a total of 278 cases of unauthorized mobile payments worth 170 million won ($122,000), raising concerns over a possible leak of customer data.

"The public's concern over the recent series of (data) breaches is growing," an official from the ministry said. "We plan to quickly check facts regarding related allegations and open the result to the public transparently."

SK Telecom, meanwhile, said the batch of client data that the hacking group claims to be selling has never been leaked, suggesting the attempted sale is very likely a scam.

"After analysing sample data, website screenshots and file transfer protocol screens posted on the dark web, we concluded that all of the information is fake, and the website does not exist within our company's system," an SK Telecom official said.

"The 100 GB worth of data as claimed by the hackers was never leaked," the official added.

Citing a report submitted by the Korea Internet & Security Agency, Rep. Choi Soo-jin of the main opposition People Power Party said the hacking group also put the source code for SK Telecom's internal software up for sale for $250,000.

The hacking group maintained it has programmes to intercept text messages and track phone calls in real time as well, while SK Telecom denied such claims.

/IANS