Leave it: Hacked e-mails and backing up.

I spent last month getting used to being a contract on multiple projects. Right now I am working with an urban farmer and a general contractor both part time. Neither is completely new their field or just starting out but both have no organization for data and I’ve been enjoying myself learning how to make an organization completely from scratch. Then today I decide to move around my personal files as I’m getting ready to tax time when I realize I’ve kept track of my expense by just tossing everything in my a drawer. Ugh.

I don’t focus on too many things or else I don’t do any of them. Today, I’ve been focused on updating my passwords on all my accounts. Over the weekend one of my e-mails were hacked and a fake Facebook page was created. It was extremely freaky to open my laptop and see a fake Facebook page and then see my gmail have over NINETY-NINE e-mails from Facebook with the Subject: Insert%Name wants to be your friend on Facebook. I. Lost. My. Shit.

First I don’t use Facebook with that e-mail. Then I saw the profile and it was a fake picture, I wish I would have been able to do a video screen capture of what was going on. I deleted the profile picture and then saw whoever made this fake account with my e-mail was on at the exact same time. What blew my mind was how many friend requests were being made. The picture was of a high school Latina and there were messages from teen boys about how pretty her picture was. I was like: I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING! I’m 30 years old! I even wrote them and said why they added me & someone typed in – while I was on – “Opps didn’t mean to send that.” I freaked out & started writing to Facebook’s help. It was extremely hard to think because I was freaking out that my e-mail had gotten hacked so I had to check all my e-mails, then my bank, then my REAL social media accounts. Finally I decided the only thing I could do was have that fake account deleted. I had no way of tracking who was doing it. No way of finding out how they got my e-mail information. I also had to completely wipe my laptops and phone. The entire process took me a whole day.

I decided to review on how to make sure that I would be more in control of my online identity. I followed the directions from several sites. I also wanted to be able to make sure that if I logged in from multiple locations that I would get an alert for this. The video below explains this.

Any how, I am annoyed that I had to spend all day doing back up and deleting, however, it is a breath of relieve that I have backed up my files and didn’t lose my e-mail. DOING ALL THIS WHILE TRYING TO WATCH HOUSE OF CARDS?! Besides constantly updating passwords, do you have tips for keeping your accounts hack-free?