It is funny how we act immune to cyber attacks despite being aware of how vulnerable we could be. The world is advancing as fast as the speed of light and the sector experiencing the highest growth is the technological sector, Judging from the way it influences everything else around the world. As a result of advancement in technology, we now have a lot of things that threatens humans safety. The most common among the threat birthed by technology is cyber crimes.
Few years back, we only consider things that could harm us physically as threats but then, here comes something that is capable of hurting people, in ways they won't be able to comprehend. In terms of hackers getting access to your accounts, privacy e.t.c leaking any form of information you hold dear. Anything digital systems to be at risk of getting hacked because the more security protocols we develop to protect our digital assets, the more cyber criminals upgrade their skill set.
I have always protected myself as much as I can, in order to shield myself from cyber attacks. Every account I have is protected with two-factor verification and other layers of security. I learnt to do all these not because I enjoy it but just like the old saying goes, Experience is the best teacher.
Some years ago, after I finished my national diploma. I started working and in few months, i began a business that involves selling internet data to people, it was a very profitable business in those days. There was a site I get the data from, then distribute it to my customers. After awhile, the cost of buying data from the site increased drastically. So I felt the need to find other sites I could buy from but I couldn't find any legit site. One day a stranger which happens to be one of my customers sent me a link and said cheaper data are sold on the site.
The link looks weird but at that moment I was really in need of another source of data, so I didn't even bother second guessing the information the site was asking me to input which involves my Facebook account login details. After inputting my log in details then it struck me, what does my Facebook account log in details have to do with my registration on a website? I closed the tab but I never knew it was late already. In those days Two factor verification was not really common so my Facebook account had none.
I think it was the second day that I tried to log in into my Facebook account then I realised I have been logged out of my account. I kept trying to log in with my password but it kept on displaying incorrect password. That moment my mind kept bugging me that it has do with the website I clicked on but then I chose to try to reset my password, Before I could do that I got a call from my cousin. She said I texted her just few minutes ago that I'm in urgent need of monetary assistance. She was about to send the money into the account provided but then the name attached to the account number wasn't mine, when she asked the person that was impersonating me using my account, he said it was his friends' account number.
Immediately she realised something was fishy, So she decided to give me call and confirm my claim. That was when it dawned on me that my account has been hacked. The most troubling aspect of it was the atrocities they are using my account to commit. I immediately reach out to my close friends and inform them about the incident and asked them to report the account. It turns out that majority of my friends got the same message my cousin got but what saved them was the fact that, I'm not the type that asks money from people. It felt strange to them, so they felt the need to call me to know what was going on.
If that wasn't the case, they would have gotten scammed, the most painful part of the whole incident was that I lost contact with a lot of my childhood friends because I no longer have their contact, I just have them as friends on Facebook. Ever since then, I made sure all my social media accounts is protected with two factor verification and Google authentication.
This write-up was inspired by Indiaunited contest titled "How do you protect yourself from online scammers" in indiaunited community.
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