Hackers and Scammers

Merry Christmas

December 24, 2023

Yup, hackers and scammers are where I’m leading off on this Christmas issue. Think it’s a very important issue to discuss as we all have a portion of our life’s out in the open and it’s not only celebrities, they’re after, but the average person too.

We all know social media has become a huge part of our lives because of its accessibility with our cell phones, but what precautions do we actually take to protect our privacy and personal lives online? Recently I had a friend that lost both her Facebook pages, personal and business, to hackers. Sadly, Facebook not once replied to her requests to return access, disable of delete them. So, it’s up to us to protect our own.

This past week I’ve been sent messages twice by hackers. I’m assuming the same ones, as the content involved ‘liking’ of photos on Instagram.

If you recall in a previous blog, I had said I was going to write a ‘tell all.’ The article was going to focus on the ‘fakeness’ of social media, especially Instagram, where ‘likes and comments’ are what drives an influencer or individuals page. If you hadn’t noticed, I had gone from 30-50 likes per post to in excess of 400 on some. All due to following a couple of those ‘like 5 for 5 likes’ profiles. It works but you don’t have a clue as to who these people are that you’re liking photos, for their likes of yours.

I decided to do this (it was to be part of that story) after another friend told me her site, listed as a business page on IG, was nothing but ‘choreographed,’ and was not her personality at all. Why? For a few bucks from sponsors. She promotes items given to her and resells the same items on sites like Poshmark and Pinterest, or wherever, for a few extra bucks.

In those messages to me, I was told by the sender they would ‘destroy my life.’ Seriously? All they did was give me something to write about. I’ll even call them out, ztfp_4 and deanashgate, both on Instagram. Neither of which has a real name as the latter is a stretch of road in Manchester England. The same country where the two sites I followed to boost ‘likes’ are from. A connection, perhaps. But who knows.

One thing I hadn’t taken into account, until later, is the fact that prior to both messages, Facebook had sent me notices about failed login attempts with passcodes for entrances. This only happens by request when one forgets their password.

Immediately after viewing these, I changed passwords on all my accounts while requesting all current sign ins to be disconnected. The new passwords include all types of variables to anything and everything on the keyboard. I suggest you make yours that way too!

I, also, notified them that the sign in attempts were NOT from me and reported the incidents.

I proceeded to change my profile to ‘private.’ But plan to change it back, to public, once I publish this blog. Why? Because it broadens my visibility for this website, and I won’t be one to fall prey to some scheme by the unsavory.

One can only imagine how many falls prey to these hacks or blackmail attempts. I for one won’t. Writing and promoting my stories is who I am and if something newsworthy comes up I’ll write about it!

Congress is no doubt right about forcing the hands of social media sites for stricter regulations. Free speech is one thing, but sites like these need to regulate them. If they can tell I write too many comments and put me in ‘Insta-jail’ for 48 hours they can definitely tell when someone is being threatened and take appreciate measures. I’ll be forwarding a copy of this blog to my congresswoman as well.

As for me I’ve sifted, and will continue to, through the followers I have and will ‘remove’ any questionable ones as well as block those I question even further. I’ve gone back through my settings on sites to make them stricter as well. By the way, I did block those two sites I was using as research but kept a few good people I had met through them. Not everyone is nefarious.

I won’t be like Taylor Swift and sing ‘Shake it Off,’ what I will do is this let…