Well, it happened to me. You think your email account is like finding a needle in a haystack, well believe me it is Not!
First last cliches:
keep an eye on- keep watch over something or someone. similar to keep your eyes peeled. In other words remain alert. An American expression dates from mid-19th century. See J.S. Robb’s Squatter Life (1847).
run the gamut-Extend over the entire range. gamut comes from Guido of Arezzo’s scale, gamma=the lowest note of the medieval scale, G; ut=first note in any given scale.
museum piece-an old-fashioned or decrepit item or person. Used ironically from about 1915 on.See John Galsworthy Swan Song (1928).
Well, good old Murphy’s Law finally kicked in for me. My yahoo email account was hacked a few weeks ago. What a nightmare. Evidently people from Nigeria have nothing better to do than try and hack emails. All of my contacts were sent an email saying I was stuck in London and needed money. Of course, I’ve never been to London, and was definitely not stuck there and in need of money.
So what happens when one is hacked? Well, first they change your password so you cannot get in and if you have any other contacts if there’s a problem, like your phone number, they cancel that. They also might change your security questions if they figure them out. Then what they do after they send your contacts all an email, they change your email account just slightly so that you might not notice it is different. For example: writerjaw would become writerjjaw or writeerjaw. There are a few places in your “settings” where you have your email account listed and you need to check all of those.
When I tried to get into my account, of course, the password was changed. I tried using my security questions, and when I answered wrong, 3 times, Yahoo blocked me out of my email account for 12 to 24 hours. Which was good, because then they were blocked out also, but they’d already set up a different email account using those slightly different versions.
The morning after, all my “fun” began. When I finally got into my account, they had deleted every contact in there. Why? So you cannot email your friends and let them know it was a hoax of course. They also deleted anything in the inbox, sent file and deleted file. All gone!. I found one email where they’d slightly changed it, so I corrected that, changed my password and went on with securing other things. Then I found another email that was off, so I had to change that back and then re-change my password again. I scoured the “settings”. They changed everything. My account was now Yahoo Canada, time was different, etc……
Anyway, it took me three days to get everything straightened out. Now I have a password that is so long and very confusing for any email account I have. I googled what to do if you’re hacked:
1. Change password and make very difficult.
2. Those security questions they ask: don’t give the correct answers-make up something.
3. Don’t have the same password for any two accounts.
4. Change your password often.
5. Make a copy of all your contacts and keep them somewhere
I also add: log out every time instead of staying signed in for two weeks, etc. A hassle, but might just save you from the nightmare I had.
I guess I have to count myself lucky in that they were only into my email account. I’m sure there are “friends” out there that I still do not have their email anymore. I know have all my contacts copied and pasted into a word document and will try and keep it updated. That was the problem. Many had changed their emails.
I hope and pray that none of you get hacked, but if you follow the above, you should be less likely.
Until next time,
Keep Writing,
Julie
