Email Hacked!

Email hacked! A couple of days ago I began to get a lot of texts, messages and phone calls asking me if I had emailed them asking for a favor. I also got a kick out of the fact that several mentioned my email came in at 6 am. Bottom line – no it was not from me. So began a busy day of researching and changing passwords. I discovered that it was my Yahoo email that was hacked- got an IP address from Nigeria! Boy did I want to lash out at “them”. But not really sure how and it is probably best I just try to safeguard my accounts and move on. It appears that “they” changed my yahoo to hot mail extension. Any replies went back to them. And it might appear that it was a legit email with my name, who’s going to pay attention to the email extension. If you replied to their request, you would then get an email back telling you I needed help and would you buy me an apple gift card. Next, they would ask you to send them a copy of the card which then allowed them to get the cash off that card and you would be out the money. It’s probably a small enough amount that no one pursues the theft and done enough times, the bandit makes out pretty well. The lesson might be that we all need to use caution and question any odd sounding email requests. I ran a virus scan and none were found on my computer. I have no idea how they got into my email. And have since changed my passwords and no longer duplicate them across apps. The silver lining on this is I appreciated and enjoyed all who contacted me asking if I’d sent the request. Seriously, between texts, messengers, phone calls my afternoon was filled. I got to catch up with folks I hadn’t heard from in quite some time. This was nice. I also finally decided I would delete David’s email. It was still attached to a couple of our on-line bills so I had to change those first. And then I deleted his email address. But I forgot that his email account had pictures attached and all his contacts. Hadn’t thought about that but I almost feel that it was another step that needed to be taken and it almost done for me rather than by me. This activity has kept me busy which is nice as my mind was beginning to dwell on all the upcoming significant dates: my birthday – I’ll be 71; David’s age; Thanksgiving- 3 years since David passed; his birthday and then Christmas; New Years and our wedding anniversary! My focus is going to be on the many significant dates we were able to share together! I may have lost some photos but with or without them, they and David are forever in my memory. Watch out for the Bad Guys! Don’t get caught by tricky scams. Good things are coming down the road, don’t stop walking!