I feel violated today. After making a stupid mistake yesterday, which older folk are wont to do, by clicking on something on messenger friend’s account, my Facebook account was hacked and the hacker, who I could quite happily murder in cold blood, attempted to do the same thing to more Facebook friends. I spent the entire afternoon trying to rectify the situation and finally, thanks eventually to some clear instructions by Facebook, most of my account is back to normal. I still can’t contact some people, including my partner, by messenger on my phone – I can on the computer – but today is better than yesterday.
I was not as concerned about being unable to access Facebook for a short while, that bit was more of a pain in the arse, but as a non-expert I was concerned about other things being compromised, so I spent an absurd amount of time resetting passwords.
It was the helplessness that I felt most as kindly friends contacted me to tell me I had been hacked. I felt like an absolute prat, too, having all but mocked others who were daft enough to allow their accounts to be hacked in the past by making what some might describe as a schoolboy error, but I doubt that a schoolboy would have made my elementary mistake.
I will never know who attacked my account but there’s a fair chance they didn’t do it for a laugh. It would have been for monetary gain by allegedly smart techies who are little more than common criminals. Hopefully, my prompt actions, which were a mixture of raw panic and desperation given my inability to follow even the most basic instructions will have done enough to protect me.
The effect on me, as you have gathered, has been somewhat traumatic. An already stressful week of GP contact – I won’t call them appointments given that I never got near seeing an actual human being, apart from the mental health nurse who I actually did get to see – was made infinitely worse by yesterday’s experience. The physical effects – and here I won’t go into much detail – have played absolutely havoc with my insides. As well as being mentally drained, I’m a bit wasted physically, too. (It could be that I also have a bug of sorts but my feeling is this is a physical reaction to extreme stress.)
I conclude with some basic advice. Do not, in any circumstances, respond to something unexpected appearing in messenger or anywhere else in haste. I was in a rush, my brain slipped out of gear and I paid an unpleasant but probably deserved price. I hope I will never forget the feelings I had when someone gained access to my personal Facebook account. There ain’t half been some clever bastards out there, as Ian Dury once put it and in my case some evil bastards, too. Mind how you go.
