I should be writing about my recent trip to Cancun, and my safe return without the swine flu. Or how I need to update this blog more often.
But instead, I’m writing about this stupid person who hacked my Twitter account and started following hundreds of spammers who started sending me hundreds of direct messages with hundreds of stupid links that I’m afraid to click. So I can’t tell you where those links go.
What I can tell you is that the incident completely freaked me out. First, because I was only gone from social media and internet access for one week, and someone managed to violate my privacy in that time frame. Second, because I had to unfollow everyone to get rid of the spammers. And I was afraid to unfollow everyone because I know lots of people have auto-unfollows and I knew my followers count would drop. Fast. Wait. It’s still dropping. Like hundreds of people every few hours.
Then I realized I just don’t care. Seriously. I know that people who would only follow me if I was following them are using me to boost their egos. And I know that cleaning out my Twitter following was unmanageable without starting from scratch. And I know that I need to get over the idea that numbers define something about my online presence.
I feel a lot of things right now. Mad at the hacker. Annoyed with the source of the originally hacked account. Annoyed with myself for using the same password for both accounts. And then, relieved that I have an excuse to unfollow everyone and delete the noise in my Twitter account. And then, back to annoyed, because I will probably spend a lot of time adding people back.
But. I can breathe again. I can hear myself think. And if that costs me a thousand followers, it’s probably still worth it.
Here’s what to do if your Twitter account is hacked:
Change the password.
Identify the source, so it doesn’t happen again.
Unfollow the spammers, even if you have to unfollow everyone.
So sorry to hear that your account got hacked! I'm sure that was a very unpleasant surprise. I hope you still enjoyed your trip though. Keep up the good work. Karma is good. I'd love to have you follow me back - I'm @SarahMerion.
Don't worry! You'll get the good followers back. If people unfollow you automatically just because you unfollow them (the stupidest thing I have heard today), then they are not very valuable followers. You will get the good ones back, slowly but surely.
I am sorry this happened to you, but thank you for writing about it so that others can be warned.
That is a major bummer that your Twitter account got hacked. Thanks for sharing it with us so the rest of us are aware. Is there still a chance of hearing about the Cancun vacation???
How to Deal With Your Hacked Twitter Account
I should be writing about my recent trip to Cancun, and my safe return without the swine flu. Or how I need to update this blog more often.
But instead, I’m writing about this stupid person who hacked my Twitter account and started following hundreds of spammers who started sending me hundreds of direct messages with hundreds of stupid links that I’m afraid to click. So I can’t tell you where those links go.
What I can tell you is that the incident completely freaked me out. First, because I was only gone from social media and internet access for one week, and someone managed to violate my privacy in that time frame. Second, because I had to unfollow everyone to get rid of the spammers. And I was afraid to unfollow everyone because I know lots of people have auto-unfollows and I knew my followers count would drop. Fast. Wait. It’s still dropping. Like hundreds of people every few hours.
Then I realized I just don’t care. Seriously. I know that people who would only follow me if I was following them are using me to boost their egos. And I know that cleaning out my Twitter following was unmanageable without starting from scratch. And I know that I need to get over the idea that numbers define something about my online presence.
I feel a lot of things right now. Mad at the hacker. Annoyed with the source of the originally hacked account. Annoyed with myself for using the same password for both accounts. And then, relieved that I have an excuse to unfollow everyone and delete the noise in my Twitter account. And then, back to annoyed, because I will probably spend a lot of time adding people back.
But. I can breathe again. I can hear myself think. And if that costs me a thousand followers, it’s probably still worth it.
Here’s what to do if your Twitter account is hacked:
If I owe you a follow, let me know. And be patient. Because it’s going to take me awhile to get back on track on Twitter.