Dear Agony Aunt,
I am a 16-year-old from Freestate. I recently opened a social media account which required me to have an email address so before I opened the account, I had to open an email address. The problem is that I recently received an email telling me that my account had been hacked and that I should click on a provided link to verify my details. I am scared to click on the link. What should I do?
Social Media Newbie
Dear Social Media Newbie,
DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK or any other link emailed to you unless you are very sure it is safe to do so. Those people emailing you that your account has been hacked sound like they want to actually hack your account and/or steal some of your information. If you want to prove that your email address has been hacked, a) ask your contacts if they are receiving spam from you. b) did your password change? Did you at some point fail to log in to your account until you changed your password? Sometimes, when your account is hacked, the hackers will prevent you from logging in sometimes even going as far to change your email recovery details. c) Did you receive any password reset requests from other websites that you did not submit? d) Do you have different IP addresses reflecting on your log? Click here to learn about IP addresses but these basically show your city, zip code, or the name of your Internet Service Provider (do not worry, none of the revealing information such as your exact address or who you are will be shown). Remember, the locations given are those from where your account was accessed. So if after checking your IP addresses on your email service provider, you find one or more locations you did not log in from, know that someone else is using your account. Search online about how to check IP addresses with your email service provider. If by any chance, you have a Google account, go to your gmail and log in. At the bottom, you will see ‘Details’ on your right. When you click on it, IP addresses from where you or someone else logged in to your account will be displayed.
If you find that you have been hacked, let your contacts know, inform your bank if you have any, as well as other organisations including those where you have opened online accounts. Lastly, you will have to close that hacked account and open a new one with a strong password.
To stay safe, avoid clicking on links you are not sure of, do not click on pop-up adverts, do not use one password for all your accounts and ALWAYS log out. Also check out these guidelines.
I wish you a safe online experience and thank you for writing to me.
Yours,
AuntieNet