HOW I GOT HACKED

On Christmas Day around noon, while I was sitting on the couch biting into my second Levain double chocolate chip cookie of the day (don’t judge! I treat myself over the holidays), I attempted to log in to my Instagram account and realized I couldn’t get access to it. Hmm strange, I thought. I had uploaded a post for Christmas no more than 15 minutes ago. I logged into my personal account instead and tried searching for my handle “GlowwithAva” and was horrified to discover the below screenshot. 

The 30k+ followers I had amassed were missing. The blood, sweat and tears I put in this entire past year was all for naught in the blink of an eye. Talk about traumatizing. I had my sister-in-law double check by searching for my account on her phone and the same results appeared. I was praying it was a system glitch but my worst nightmare turned to reality as I then received the below email.

I had been hacked. I had heard horror stories about other influencers who had to start from scratch as a result of being hacked but never thought it could happen to me. Would I have to start over again as well? I didn’t have the courage to put in all the time and effort to redo everything all over again. That was just not going to happen. I am so thankful to have had my sister-in-law and her fiancé by my side when this all went down. They were both a lot calmer than me and we got to work researching and googling “what to do when your instagram gets hacked”. We found some grim news pretty quickly which was that Instagram Help Center basically doesn’t exist and is utterly useless. Plus, it was Christmas Day. No one was in the office or standing by a dedicated hotline to help. This was undoubtedly part of the hackers’ plans. 

After another hour, the hackers sent me another email saying “Good Day! Sorry for the inconvenience! You have 1 hour until I sell your account”. I had yet to respond to the hackers and after much debating with my inner advisory circle (aka my sister-in-law, her fiance, and my stuffed emotional support pig), we decided we would not oblige their requests and respond. I strongly considered just messaging back quickly to see what their demands would be, but my father-in-law was adamant I not respond. One of his favorite movies is a Harrison Ford action flick called ‘Air Force One’ and as he and Harrison put it best- “we do NOT negotiate with terrorists”.

Instagram support had done little to none so I then proceeded to reach out to any contacts I knew that worked there. My fiancé’s good friend had a high up contact that helped expedite the situation but could not get anyone to help out until earliest the next day. I finally came across a few articles that mentioned this “Juan” guy from Colombia who could “unhack” your account for a high fee. I was skeptical but there were numerous articles touting his services and I figured I’d rather pay this guy than pay the hackers. After all, how would I even know they would return my account back to the way it was even if I paid them.

I DM’d Juan from my personal IG and waited for his response. This period of waiting was agonizing. I tried to distract myself by gorging on more food and attempting to settle Catan, but to no avail. All I could think about was returning back to my old job in finance and beating myself up over losing everything I had built up. 

Instagram support got back to me the next morning and we went back and forth a couple times, but this was all in all futile. For example, they emailed me a link to reset my account but of course, the link didn’t work. This happened three times and each time the link did not work. My frustration was reaching its boiling point.

Thankfully, Juan soon responded. He let me know he could potentially recover my account but needed my email account and my password to confirm this. It sounded highly suspicious and I began to think perhaps he could be colluding with the hackers himself? After some debate, I figured I had nothing further to lose at this point and sent him the info he required. 

After another brutally agonizing 4 hours passed by, Juan finally confirmed he could help me out. I started screaming. We negotiated terms and he let me know that he would fully recover my account within 24 hours. He only needed a fraction of that time as he restored my account to the way it was before. I was and still am ecstatic beyond belief. 

Everyone says you don’t truly value something until it’s gone, and this cannot be truer. The bright side of this whole experience is that it has truly reinvigorated my passion for what I do, and reminded me of why I quit my job to dedicate myself to helping you all glow brighter each day. 

Thank you so much for listening to my story. I know it’s long but hope it was helpful / slightly thrilling. If this happens to any of you, please don’t hesitate to reach out. And most importantly…HOW DO YOU PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING TO YOU?

1. Turn on two factor authentication.

I was foolish enough to not have this turned on for my account and it’s the easiest way to secure your account. Even if you have this on, it’s not a sure proof way to prevent any hacking but it sure is a strong protection. Go to settings >> privacy >> two-factor authentication. 

Source: Planoly.

2. Connect your account to Facebook.

If your personal account is linked to your Instagram account it can be easier to help recover your account in the future.

3. Update your password regularly and don’t use Password123. Pretty straight forward here. 

4. Do not open / respond to suspicious emails.

I used to open every single email I got and respond to a good number of them. When the prince of Nigeria reaches out to you personally for help, how could you not respond? But these are all likely phishing emails and make you more vulnerable to future hackers. The basic rule of thumb is that if you aren’t sure if it’s a phishing attempt, most likely it is. Same thing goes for suspicious accounts on Instagram. I recommend blocking these accounts.

5. Be smart. Be cautious. Be a little afraid.

We live in a scary world. Its sad to say this but you really have to watch who you can trust. I still believe that most folks in this world are good hearted people but there are evil doers in this world as well. Log out if you logged into your account or email using any other device. Change your password to your email frequently as well. And if you do get hacked, remember to NEVER negotiate with them!

Here’s to a hack-free social media life!!!