Just want to share a recent incident where I helped alert one of my loyal blog and FB follower.One fine day, I received an email from this follower of mine. I remembered her email address as she has recently won one of my giveaways and I constantly see her email address too since I approve each and every comments I get on my blog posts.
So anyway, I received an email with the following content (please note I have changed the person's name to Miss ABC to protect her identity):
From: Miss ABC
Sent: Monday, 2 April, 2012 6:11 PM
To: undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Horrible Vacation Trip...........Miss ABC
Hi, I'm writing this with great grievance . I'm presently in Manila,Philippines with my Family for a short vacation and we're stuck...And really it was unannounced. We were attacked by four armed robbers on our way back to the hotel where we lodged.we were robbed and completely embarrassed.
All our cash,credit cards and cellphone were stolen. We've reported the incident to the embassy and the Police but to my dismay they seem not bothered...their response was just too casual.Our flight leaves in few hours but We've got to settle our bills before We're allowed to leave....Now am freaked out....Please I need you to loan some money, All i need is $1,600 I promise to refund you as soon as I'm back home.. . Please Let me know what you can do?Write me back so I can tell you how to get it to me..
Thanks
Miss ABC
Now, my first thought was "If she has been robbed, will she still have time to login to her email and send this to me? Plus, yes, I have been really generous and often go out of my way by footing the delivery charges whenever I host giveaways for Malaysian nailing address but asking me to send over $1600 to her?"
Alert! Alert! Alert!
Like I mentioned before, she's lucky for regularly liking and even commenting on my Facebook page updates, so I was able to send a direct message to her via Facebook to let her know that her Gmail account has been compromised.
Image credit: Google search
I definitely dare not reply her email, who knows the hacker might still be using her email address which is why I contacted her on FB instead. She immediately replied me n FB saying her data has been wiped and asked what can she do. I can only advised her to changer her password and to not login to check her emails from public places, other than that I can't help further.
Have you experienced your email account being hacked before and what do you do?
** Btw, this is definitely NOT an invitation or request for you to frequently like my FB status though I do want you to join my giveaways (cos' hey, I try hard to negotiate with the sponsors for giveaway opportunities to you guys), my point for writing this post is I just want to highlight this incident as a good-to-know case for you guys!