I’ve Been Hacked!
That’s right folks. I have now been a victim of one of those despicable companies that somehow get into your e-mail account and then spams all your contacts with a link to some ridiculous website. Apparently my hacker thought a weight loss website was appropriate for me to share with my contacts. I’m offended!
Seriously, this happening to my personal e-mail account upsets me. I’ve built both personal and professional relationships with many of my contacts and feel that I have lost a bit of their trust since this incident occurred. Even though it wasn’t my fault, shouldn’t I have taken better precautions to make sure something like this wouldn’t occur to me?
Fortunately, a few of my contacts e-mailed and let me know that they had received a strange e-mail from me. I’m actually a bit shocked that out of hundreds and hundreds of contacts, only a small handful actually e-mailed me to let me know what happened. I’m glad they did though, so I could quickly change my e-mail password so that this won’t happen again. So, a big thank you to those who did let me know about the spam e-mail.
So, what can you do to make sure you don’t become a victim like me (ok, maybe victim is a strong word…but I’m not happy!) I suggest that you go and immediately change your e-mail password to something confusing and crazy so that it is very difficult for anyone to figure it out. Of course, make sure you write this new password down somewhere because you probably will never remember it!
And for all your passwords, don’t use any of the following: pet’s names, children’s names, birthdays, house number or last name. I know that many of you reading this are guilty of using one of these common phrases. You know who you are! Change those now!
One final note, if you get an e-mail from someone you know with just a link attached – no other words – DON”T OPEN IT! It’s probably spam. E-mail that person back and let them know what you received. They may not even know they’ve been hacked yet!
Happy e-mailing!
