March 28th, 2023

INSTAGRAM HACK

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Well it had to happen. I thought I was invinceable, but it appears I am not as smart as I thought I was. In other words, I got hacked! How could this happen to someone who knows the games hackers play. Well, it was through empathy. Someone on my Instagram asked me for help.  All I had to do to help them was copy and paste to authenticate their Instagram. 
Well, I thought to myself, "Its not clicking on the link, its just copying on to hers". So I thought, and in seconds BAM my Instagram was gone. I actually saw it happening. First it was a Nigerian phone number and then before I could protest it was also a Nigerian email account. I tried to get ahead of them but I went into panic mode. 
Did I pay a ranson, YES!
Did he give it back NO!
Did I feel like a complete and utter idiot. YES.
Why am I telling you this story. He is now contacting 1950 of the 2050 followers I had. The savey ones have jumped ship and gone to my new Instagram page; @billynyeart.
However, the others are now getting messages pretending to be me and asking for help. Let me get this clear to anyone that knows me. I will never, ever, ever ask for help. I could be drowning and I would try to help myself, I would not ask for help. I don't ask for help from anyone ever. So please please please do not respond for me asking for help.
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All of my social media and websites have had the BN avatar taken off. The new avatar is the one on the right. Please unfollow @billynye_art and follow @billynyeart.
At first I was heart broken and humiliated. Then the hacker contacted me on Whatsapp and thought it would be funny to talk to me, taunt me and be a general smart arse. It was unkind and I blocked him. He then tried to hack me on Facebook and I blocked him.
He then posted on my old instagram that I had bought a new Mercedes........I wish.
Bascially he is me and he now owns the BN avatar. I have let it go and he can have it.
I have learnt a vaulable lesson and that is NOT to trust anyone on social media and to also set up the authentication codes for both FAcebook and Instagram.
This will not happen again. I will never put my bank details on a social app for ads. I will never put my banking details on Paypal. Nothing is safe anymore. The world has changed.

Oh and one last thing everyone, social media is not my identity. When adversity happens, no matter how old you are or how much your life is linked to a social media account, you spit the dummy, scream out loud, feel sorry for yourself, berate yourself and then you stand up, brush youself off and start all over again. Make it happen again and this time do it better.
So be careful friends and take care and remember its just social media and you can do it again and do it better.