VIGILANT & CAREFUL

 

At least I thought I was, but yet I was easily tricked and hacked! A number of my friends have been as well. A close one recently retired, a successful business woman far more tech savvy had her identity stolen. She's the last person I ever thought this would happen to, she was just too smart!

A different retired friend refuses to be on social media at all! And now insists I should not be either, that I'm just putting myself out there for dangerous things to happen.

Plus she claims never should I pay for a restaurant meal with my credit card as is my habit. It's too easy for someone to take a photo of the number with their phone. This actually happened to her and her husband.

Well I'm not going to let this experience stop me from living my life! As an independent author I need to be on social media. Also thanks to the pandemic and runaway inflation Facebook's largely my social life these days. Seldom can I afford go out and enjoy the things I did only five years ago.

I recall my Aunt Kiki, a beauty and former model. She was an extreme extrovert, outgoing with confidence to spare. However she was terrified to fly in an airplane. As a young bride she witnessed the gruesome aftermath of a plane crash on her street. The sight of severed and burned human limbs, heads and organs scattered across the pavement left her traumatized.

Back in the 1970's when I was jetting all over the world she feared for me. But I have glorious memories of all those wonderful countries I visited and the fabulous experiences I enjoyed.

I vividly recall my first flight at age seven. Ironically my mother and I flew to Detroit to visit HER!  This was also my mother's first as well. I remember her saying right in front of me that our plane was probably going to crash! I was petrified!

Our flight was late night which made it even scarier! I expected to be dead before morning!  -- My mother also told me in the 1970's that I would probably die in a plane crash!

Yet I remember waking up in my seat the next morning to the sight of the most breathtaking cloud formations I'd ever seen before or since. A sight so ethereal and beautiful I felt as if I was soaring thru heaven, all my fears vanished!

By age thirty, I'd flown more times than I can count. Yes, there were some close calls along with negative experiences, but never regrets.

HACKED & HIJACKED

 

Suspicious activity was going on and I ignored it for too long. I had an anti-virus after all so I felt safe. But the kicker came when my monthly credit card statement arrived in my email. The amount looked correct. I wasn't immediately concerned. But when I attempted to log in I was informed I needed to change my password. However instead of just the last 4 digits of my SS & card no. they wanted all!

I believed that I was dealing with my C.C. co. so like a fool I gave it! Then I was informed they had no record of me as a client. I've had this card for over 20 yrs and use it to pay bills. To say the least now I was alarmed!

I called the 800 no. on the back of the card repeatedly and kept getting some woman on a recorded line trying to sell me a medical alert bracelet asking "Can you hear me?" -- I've been warned this is a scam and hung up each time.

Fortunately I was able to contact my C.C. co. thru another site. We went to the email and suddenly my computer mouse took on a life of its own! I found myself struggling for control of it. Later I learned this was not my imagination! Thankfully my card was cancelled and a new one issued.

My tech man made an emergency trip over here. He went thru everything and we changed passwords. He told me he didn't think I was hacked. "It's impossible to hack a landline," he said. But this is untrue.

I wrote on Facebook I suspected that I was hacked. Immediately all sorts of strangers were posting on my timeline offering aide and advice. I would like to believe all of them were pure of heart with only good intentions, but I know better. I looked at their profiles and it wouldn't surprise me if they all had prison records. Every single one I blocked. Even if they'd had the faces of angels I would never have trusted them.

Then I Googled: How to tell if you've been hacked. As I'm reading I'm checking off all the boxes in my head. I WAS HACKED!!!

Now I was part of a club. Two dear friends of mine were also hacked, one recently. They pointed me in the right direction to a tech service here in Vero that specializes in dealing with hackers. The service came and picked up my computer. And thru my friend Sue I got a better qualified tech man. We sat down and changed my passwords again.

Also I went thru my Facebook followers list. To my horror I discovered that every sketchy person whose friendship request I'd rejected was there along with obvious romantic scammers I'd also rejected. In the future I must remember not just to delete, but block when these appear.

Plus I found numerous strangers of questionable character, many from third world countries who had attached themselves to me like warts.

Out of nowhere a new follower appeared at the top of the page. I went to his profile. He was a young guy under the heading: Professional Hacker, no friends were listed. Why would anyone advertise themselves this way? It's tantamount to someone walking thru a public parking lot holding a sign saying: Professional Car Thief! Needless to say, I blocked him immediately.

Other millennials were among my followers as well, this was a red flag! I'm over 70 and not someone a person of that age would find particularly interesting, except for maybe what they could take from me, such as my credit card and SS numbers.

I went thru my followers list with an axe, (figuratively speaking) probably offing a number of innocent people in the process but the collateral damage was necessary.

Suddenly I was abruptly blocked from blocking and these people all needed to disappear! Fortunately I found a way. It was more time consuming but needed to be done. Anyway this whole ordeal had proved costly in both time and money.

If I ran the world all hackers would die (literally) slowly and painfully as possible. These people are human scum!