Phew
The last 2 days have been tough for me. 2 days ago, my account on Hive got hacked and this threw me into a frenzied state. I am writing this post mostly to sensitize fellow newbies out there that might come across this post so they do not fall prey to the same trap as I did.
2 days ago, I wrote a post to a prompt by 
@galenkp for 'THE WEEKEND' community. Immediately the post was published, I received a comment thanking me and asking me to vote Leofinance as a witness and get some Hive and Leo rewards. Clicking that link is definitely the worst decision I made last week. Anyways, the link turned out to be a phishing link. My keys and passwords were immediately changed and revoked. I wasn't sure exactly what the problem was at the time. I thought if I logged out and logged back in, everything would normalize. Imagine my shock and surprise upon logging out, only to discover that I could no longer log in to my account. My first port of call was 
@jaydr, who happens to be the one who introduced me to this platform. He was not online at the time so I presented the issue at the WhatsApp group he created for us. 
@deraaa replied immediately and was such a big help. It was then the reality of what had happened really hit me. 
@deraa helped me get in contact with 
@belemo to try and proffer a solution to the problem. Apparently, 
@stickupboys and 
@arcange already replied the phishing comment stating that it was a scam, but they were already late. I already feel into the trap🥲.
Anyways, I was then connected to 
@guiltyparties on discord, who then connected me to 
@good-karma who was then my last port of call in this tiring and exhausting journey. I was already planning on creating a new account, but @jaydr advised me to just wait a while and exercise patience. I'm so glad I listened. @good-karma was such a great help and I'm so glad to have for in contact with him. I'm so glad that I registered with 
@ecency and they eventually made it quite easy to get my account back. 2 days into the initial breach, I have regained control of my account and I'm writing this post to say that I'm back at the wheels. I shall endeavor to be more careful in my dealings on this platform in the future.
Did the hacker(s) do any damage? They sure did. They already started the process of powering down my HIVE, but thankfully, the process isn't immediate and I was able to stop it before they could accomplish that evil aim. I also noticed that all my HIVE SBI units, 9 units, had been cleared out. My streak was also affected. I had been posting and commenting everyday this month up until this happened. This is all the damage, I think.
I am however, not battered by this. The only way to move is forward. This is in the past now. I have learned a lot of valuable lessons though. Most important of which is the fact that the streets ain't smiling and there are people out there lurking in the shadows who want to cart away all your hard work in the blink of an eye. Learn their tactics and avoid them. Do not let them win.
I am also grateful to other people who provided encouragement and offered to help during this period. Wonderful people such as 
@nonsowrites , 
@draysax , 
@drceeyou , 
@melinda010100 , @arcange, and others I may have skipped.
Thanks so much to you all for your kind words and help through a dark time. I appreciate it and do not take it for granted.
