A quick note to everyone who has entered a Secret Agent contest prior to the advent of the automated system, and to everyone who has ever sent me an email to which I've responded:
Over the past month, I've received an usual number of spam emails from various reader addresses. I know it's someone phishing, and I know none of you are at fault. I'm just wondering at the connection here, and thinking that maybe you ought to change your passwords for safety's sake.
No harm done on this end. But so many of you seem to have been hacked lately that I felt a kind of motherly (?) concern for all of you.
So consider changing your passwords. And if your account gets phished, make sure you report it right away.
*hugs*
My gmail account got hacked and Google shut it down as well as removing my main blog. Scared the crap out of me.
ReplyDeleteHoops jumped through, passwords changed and it's all back.
The hackers are getting better every day.
I suggest using a combination of letter and numbers, with upper and lower case on both. Much harder to get through.
Have you checked your machine? Sometimes viruses, hackers, etc., can affect your own account (in various ways) and send spam messages, making it appear that they are from people in your contact list.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for e-mail systems that support it, use https (e.g. Gmail).
ReplyDeleteMy mom got hacked and couldn't get her e-mail back. The hacker changed the password and Gmail had no way of verifying my mom's or the hacker's identity (now they've added a secondary e-mail address for that purpose). She had to get a new e-mail address and Facebook account (which also got hacked).
I wonder why they bother. No one reads the */%$§ Spam anyway.
ReplyDelete