Hacker Rats Beware!

I did something stupid. I accepted a Friend Request on FaceBook without checking to see if the request was legitimate. I know better than  that. But I have grown lazy. 

A short while later (maybe a day or so),  I received a message from "her".  That in and of itself was somewhat odd, since we are not super close—we sang in a couple of Choirs together, she’s invited me to join another singing group she’s involved in now.  Or she could have looked at some of my recent posts about Moggy, my fairly new rescue kitten. She also has been involved in cat rescue—but in a really big and formal way.  So theoretically she could have contacted me. However, since I would see her at Choir Rehearsal in just a couple of hours, it was highly unlikely and Clue Number One that not all was right in FB-Land.

Clue Number Two that this was not my real friend:  The syntax of her message was off.

The Final Clue came when she asked if I had heard her "good news." To a Southern Baptist, that has a whole other conotation and many times we reserve this particular phrase for the telling of The Good News (that Jesus Christ died for our sins and offers the free gift of Salvation to all who believe and receive it).  

Smelling a soon to be confirmed hacker-rat, I noncommittally asked "her" what her good news was.  “She” began to tell me about the $100,000 she had been awarded by FB and Zuckerboy (I call him that, the hacker–rat does not.). I confronted hacker-rat immediately.  Then I messaged Real Friend to let her know she’d been hacked, and I deleted the hacked account from my Friend List. I also contacted 4 of the 5 friends we have in common (I’m sorry #5, I couldn’t remember who you were). I also posted a warning on my own FB Page on global settings, changed my password, and reported the hacking to FB. Included in my FB page warning,  a reminder  that  of all my friends, I have only made a Friend Request twice (I can’t stand the thought of someone rejecting my request).  I also globally announced I have not received any money, or other good news—and neither am I in need of money while being stuck in another country with my passport and wallet missing.  In short, I did all the things I could think of to stop this hacker-rat in their tracks.

However, I think I performed the steps in the wrong order.

I think the order I should have taken should have been:   

1)      Change my password.

2)      Report it to my Real Friend.

3)      Notify all our common friends.

4)      Report it to FB.

5)      Delete the hacker-rat account without giving the hacker-rat a heads-up that I was not fooled.

6)      Change my password a second time.  Just in case I was too slow the first time. 

7)      Post my warning and reminder announcement on my FB page, on global settings.  

No matter, it’s done now. Hopefully this particular hacker-rat will be thwarted. In reality, they probably won’t be. I’m not as computer savvy as they are.  But, I did enjoy telling hacker-rat I was on to them, and they were being reported.

Now, I just have to remember to be more diligent about accepting Friend Requests....and my new password....