Hacking, did it ever happen to you?

[carole gill]

I just really need to start this discussion.
Still shaken up over having been hacked into and having all my contacts stolen!
So weird!
And a contact said he received some wacky mail too!
I've contacted everyone but it really left me upset.
I changed my email--but still!
Has it ever happened to you?
Any advice you can give me?
Would be eternally grateful!

[Ayo]

It has not happened to me but it has happened to my sister. There is not much you can do that you have not done already. It leaves you feeling as if you have been violated.

[carole gill]

so true!
that's exactly how I feel. thanks so much.

[I. J. Parker]

I don't understand. You mean someone got your online addressbook? I cannot imagine how that would be done. Well, I suppose a hacker could, but aren't those folks out for bigger rewards?
Would this likely be someone who knows you and has reason to want this information?

[carole gill]

have no idea.
Friday I did notice something weird. you know the failure to deliver thing?
it looked as though mail had been forwarded to all of my contacts!
when I opened up my contacts yesterday morning, all the contacts were gone.
I'm going to keep the contact file blank, and just keep names and addresses in an address book.
I have a different email now though. and I've closed the hacked account.
it was so weird.
btw one contact said he received some wacky catalogue.
anyway, i've notified everyone I could think of.
not sure if the person knew me--who knows?
people have said this has happened to them or someone they know and there's really no way to stop it.
very creepy experience!

[Anne Frasier]

was this something like gmail or hotmail? i've always wondered how safe gmail can be when most of the spam is directly related to emails.

[carole gill]

it was hotmail.
but i checked and I understand no email is immune to hacking.
Because if one was, I would go for it.
If you know otherwise, please let me know!

[Ayo]

When it happened to my sister it was her Yahoo account. We did report it to Yahoo but they were not that interested I doing anything. We are still awaiting a response to our letter to them about it. The only reason we found out was because they pretended to be my sister and were talking to me via messenger. Too make things worse they tried to blackmail my sister via myself saying that they were going to sell her details online. I basically told them to F**** Off and that I was not going to give in to blackmail. We also reported them to the police. Unsurprisingly the person who did it was from Nigeria.

[carole gill]

eek!
Goodness!
I think that Yahoo should have been interested to help. That's probably part of the problem. it's not an issue with them
For me it was MSN, there was something about reporting it, but I thought what was the point.
Terrible age we live in. I mean we have so much our parents didn't have, but there are so many ways security can be breached.
my husband has so many security things in, it drives me crazy--and yet! it was still hacked into.
thanks Ayo very much!

[Anne Frasier]

wow. that's alarming. as writers, i'm thinking maybe we should be concerned about sending manuscript files through email - something i do all the time with my gmail account.

[carole gill]

right, I thought about that.
I suppose snail mail is the answer perhaps?
interesting point Anne let's see what others say.

[Anne Frasier]

a lot of agents have gone paperless and prefer everything through email, but i suppose it would be safer to at least snail mail files on a disc.

[carole gill]

yes Anne--I mean I think it really would be.
Of course you ought to check with people who know more than I do about such things.
All I know is it happened to me, this hacking and it shook me up.
It hasn't happened to my husband or to writer friends of mine. But the thing is I suppose the possibility is that it could.