So I have spent all morning, literally since I opened my eyes, trying to deal with the HACKING of my personal email. My Guy and I were sitting at the kitchen counter having coffee when he informed me that my email had been hacked. The Email that went out to my contacts read:
From: xxxxxxxx
Date: January 16, 2014 at 7:43:18 AM EST
To: xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Please Help!!
Reply-To: xxxxxxxxx
Good morning,
I am writing this with tears in my eyes, My family and I made a trip to Kiev (Ukraine) unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off us but luckily we still have our passports with us.
I have been to the Embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all the bad news is our flight will be leaving in less than 12-hrs from now but we are having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills, I will need your help (LOAN ) financially, I promise to make the refund once we get back home. Please let me know if i can count on you and i need you to keep checking your email because it's the only way i can reach.
Thanks,
Candace Evans-Lucas
The Candy Bar
20 Church Street
Wellesley, MA 02482
781-439-5899
Candybarcosmetics.com
Oh HELL No!
I have received this email before from people and never thought much of it. Pain in the ASS hackers-so I handled it and took the necessary steps to protect my email account immediately.
But then the most amazing thing happened....
People started emailing, texting and calling me. My phone blew up! My family and friends and my Facebook friends all letting me know I had been hacked! My blogger friends, Scope, Cora, Zibsy and BeckEye all contacted me-then people outside my circle started calling. Strangers and even Frack's school teachers!!! All checking to see if we were OK.? I couldn't believe it. People that I used to work with called me , people that I didn't even know reached out to let me know that I had possibly been hacked.
The most touching came from an acquaintance I had met through my son's athletic team. He called expressing his concern. I informed him that my email had been hacked and that I was sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused him and then he told me,
"Candace, I'm glad it is not true because if it were, we would have taken the proper steps to help you."
It's people like that that make me want to squash every single hacker's fingers into a million pieces.
Their overwhelming kindness and the fact that they could have become a victim of fraud because of me??? I couldn't bear the thought. So I have been all over the place this morning trying to report, catch, intercede and do whatever I can to ensure that my contacts know that this is a SCAM!!! I seem to have lost my address book to send a bulk email, but I'm working on that too. I have posted on every possible social media site, Facebook Twitter and Instagram and now on the Daily Dandy! My apologies if any of you are inconvenienced.
For all the bad that it caused, it sure doesn't negate the good because the good is glaringly obvious.
Yeah...I saw this email from "you" last night. Was going to leave you a message about it today. Glad that many others got to you before I could.
ReplyDeleteHaving just read about you being some place balmy, I damn well knew you hadn't been mugged in frozen @$$ Kiev!
ReplyDeleteI've had a similar thing happen a few years back, and my Mom got one once claiming to be from my nephew claiming to be in Canada and not able to get back across the border.
I hope no one was caught by this ruse. And for certain I was going to reach out to you.
And if you were stuck in Kiev, a lot of people would have been there to help.
So I should put a stop payment on that certified $1000 check? Or will you just send it back to me in cash?
ReplyDeleteI'd prefer the cash, you know how hard it is to work with a bank and certified checks.
ReplyDeleteI received emails like this from friends before too. Years ago. I didn't fall for it.
ReplyDeleteI've also had people knocking on my door, saying "I just ran out of gas and my kids are in the car"
I seldom give money to anybody who asks, only people who don't ask.
I say that we employ the turkish form of punishment for this. If you are caught hacking the hands come off...simple as that.
ReplyDelete