For a couple days last month, I knew what BP Oil must be experiencing when I had an oil link of my own to contend with that kept gushing. My spill wasn’t oil, but it was a virus inside my computer that kept spreading and spreading and spreading.  For a few hours there, I was wondering if I was ever going to be able to cap the thing.  But, thankfully I did – but it wasn’t easy.  I hope and pray you never get your email accounts hijacked. It’s no fun.  And this post today is intended to be of some help in case it does happen to you.  Also, I will offer preventive tips to ensure that you won’t have the same awful experience that I had on Memorial Day.

WHAT HAPPENED

One night when I logged into my Facebook book account an unusual page was displayed.  The page was alerting me to the fact that someone or something had access to my Facebook account from Nigeria and Facebook wanted to verify that I was indeed the owner.  I did verify that I was the owner, but it didn’t matter.  The damage had already been done.

The hacking scheme was due to my Facebook account being hacked and from that, the hackers in Nigeria or wherever got a hold of my email address attached to Facebook from there figured out my password.

PREVENTION TIP #1 –

Do not have the same password on more than one account.

I made the mistake of using one password for all my email accounts and a few others.  So every account that had that same password was affected by the hacking.  The hacker then got control of my email addresses on gmail, Verizon/Yahoo and Go Daddy and subsequently froze me out of each. Thank goodness I changed my online banking password just a week prior otherwise, the hacker would have had access to that.

The evil person/company sent the following email to all my contacts, whether they were HR Recruiters, past bosses, old boyfriends, pastors, family, clothing stores or people I’m interviewing with. Everyone got this message and it was embarrassing and of course, the worst part the message was grammatically incorrect.  I would never do that or play on the kindness/emotions of others.
Subject: “Sad New’s”
Hello,
This message may be coming to you as a surprise but I need your help.Few days back I made an unannounced vacation trip to London,UK .Everything was going fine until last night when I got mugged on my way back to the hotel.They Stole all my cash,credit cards and cellphone but thank God I still have my life and passport.Another shocking is that the hotel manager has been unhelpful to me for reasons I don’t know. I’m writing you from a local library cybercafe..I reported to the police and after writing down some statements that’s the last I had from them

I contacted the consulate and all I keep hearing is they will get back to me. I need your help ..I need you to help me out with a loan to settle my bills here so I can get back home tomorrow. I’ll refund the money as soon as I get back. All I need is $2400..Let me know if you can get me the money then I tell you how to get it to me.

Thanks

Cindy
So as this criminal was blasting out that email message, I was powerless. I was unable to get into my email accounts and stop the thing.  And since the hacker changed my email settings to forward all messages to his email account, I wasn’t able to see the email messages I was receiving.  Despite being frozen out of my computer, my phone was working and as such, I started to get numerous calls from frantic people seeing if I was okay.  Several many people sent notes, texts and calls to check on me to see if I needed money.   It was uplifting to hear from so many, but, at the same time, it did make me mad that this person caused my family and friends to worry about me needlessly, especially on a holiday.

WHEN YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT IS FROZEN

Since I couldn’t access any of my email accounts, I had to contact each provider separately to get them to change passwords and un-freeze my accounts.  And this was tricky. When dealing with Facebook and gmail, you do not receive phone support.  All correspondence with them is done online and despite that policy, I have to say that it was handled quickly.

STEPS TO SAFETY

Step 1 – Make an entirely new email account to serve as a placeholder.  You need a new account because when you contact the email providers they want to send you information to an email address to inform you how to change your password.  Without a working email, you can’t get these confirmation notices.

Step 2 – Call your providers.

If you have a Yahoo account that is affected..you can call their helpline at 408-349-1572. To report an abusive Yahoo situation, send an email to abuse@yahoo.com.

If you have a Verizon email address, the phone number to contact them is 800-567-6789.

If you have a Go Daddy webmail account, call Go Daddy’s customer service at 480-505-8877.

For gmail, you need to fill out its account recovery form. In a matter of minutes, my regular gmail account was unlocked by filling out this form.

Step 3 – Check your email settings.

In a matter of four hours, I was able to access all my email accounts.  But…I still wasn’t receiving messages on gmail.  And here’s where it gets tricky.  Be sure to check your settings on all accounts. On my gmail setting, I uncovered  that the hacker was forwarding all my messages (incoming and outgoing) to a random Yahoo account.  How evil was that!

I reported that Yahoo address to Yahoo, but other than that…I don’t think anything has happened to shut down this Nigerian company.

Step 4 – Set new Passwords on all email and social media accounts.

As a result of the hacking, every single account I have and it’s quite a lot has its own unique password attached to it. Yes, it’s a pain, but its the best way I can think of to safe guard access to multiple accounts if this ever happens to me again.

Step 5- Log off applications when not in use and don’t leave accounts open overnight.

I now no longer leave my computer running all night long while logged into accounts. I open and close applications each time I use them.  I don’t want another person to be able to access my accounts again, while I am not present at the time and working in them. I used to keep my accounts open for long periods of time and thus, believe that how this aggregator got access to my Facebook page.

I also do not have Skype open up without me opening it and I’m careful about any pay pal exchanges as well.

Practice safety all the time….that’s my best tip for you.  I do not want you to experience what I went through.  And if it does, be sure to put messages on your Facebook page, blogs, email blasts and phone message that you have been hacked. That will save you much time and effort.

I hope this helped you somewhat…

With a whole new set of passwords,

Cindy