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Dear Reader,
The first clue this was not your friend was to notice all the typos and poor grammar. The second clue, and this is a big one, any anytime you are asked by anyone to buy a gift card, be suspicious. If it is a friend asking for it, as in this case, call the friend directly and confirm. No legitimate company will ever ask for payment via a gift card. Congratulations on being savvy and calling out the scam and thank you for sharing your experience with us.
Sincerely,
The Scam Spotter
How Does Email Get Hacked?
- You were tricked into giving a scammer access through a phishing attack.
- You forgot to sign out of a public or shared device.
- Hackers stole your information over a compromised Wi-Fi network.
- Your account information was leaked in a data breach.
- Malware was installed on your device when you clicked on an unsecured link.
In general, just opening an email isn't going to get you hacked. However, clicking on links or attachments in an email can be very dangerous.
What Happens if You Click on a Phishing Link?
Clicking on a phishing link or opening an attachment in one of these messages may install malware, like viruses, spyware, or ransomware, on your device. This is all done behind the scenes, so it is undetectable to the average user.
Spammers can tell if you open an email when you or your email application interacts with the message. When your webmail or mobile email app automatically downloads things like photos or graphics, the spam sender immediately knows their content was viewed.
Can Someone Hack Your Facebook by Messaging You?
There are many ways your Facebook account can get hacked. Perhaps someone is sending messages on your behalf or posts something pretending to be you.
If you can still log in to your account, here’s what to do if you think you’ve been hacked:
Change your password right away. If you can’t log in, request a password reset. If that doesn’t work, it’s possible that someone has changed the email address on the account. Here is a way of dealing with that. Report to Facebook, so they can help stop it from happening to others.
On your profile page, go to Settings & Privacy, then Security & Login, and see if you recognize every location or device listed. If you don’t recognize a location or a device, press the three-dot menu and select “not you?”. This will log you out and will help you further secure your account.
Be wary when clicking on a message in Facebook Messenger. If your Messenger gets hacked, the hacker can gain access to your account and log in to review the information in your messages or send messages individually to people in your contacts, pretending to be you.
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