It was the day before I left for Seattle when I was folding laundry and making the bed. I was listening to podcasts on Spotify on my laptop. I set the laptop on the nightstand. Suddenly, the podcast stopped.
I didn’t think much about it. Huh, I thought. Did my screensaver stop it? I tried to start up the podcast again. No luck.
Later, I was looking at my email and I got one from Spotify telling me that a new email was associated with my account, or some such words. They asked me to click on a link if I didn’t change my email.
Well, I didn’t fall off the turnip truck and I wasn’t going to click on their link.
At that moment my son called to chat and I told him what happened.
“What’s the new email address?” he asked.
“Something @Yandex.com.”
“Mom! That’s Russian!”
Yikes! I spent the next hours changing passwords to everything. My son told me I needed a password manager like Last Pass and a VPN. He said in today’s world, those two things are a necessity.
I quickly installed the needed items and felt better.
I copied the body of the email from Spotify and found a link on their website to send in the info that “No. I didn’t change my email address and now I was blocked.” I still wasn’t going to click on their link. But Spotify got back to me quickly and told me they’d secure my account. I had trouble accessing it for several days. Again this week I was logged out.
I wonder why my Spotify account was hacked? What was the purpose? Was it to gain access to my laptop and passwords?
This was not how I had planned spending my last day at home before my trip to Seattle to spread Mom’s ashes and reminisce with family.
Have you been hacked? Was it email or an app?
Do you have VPN or a password manager?
My email account was hacked years ago. But now they have made it more secure.
I get many suspicious emails but no better than to click on them.
Those I delete straight away
Spotify was attacked because it has the most vulnerability. Hackers look for the weak points in a system, and they enter through that weakness. In this case, they shut down Spotify for the sole purpose of getting you to click that link, thus inviting them into your entire system. We are considering VPN, but do not store our passwords in the system. Duck Duck Go has a password manager built in and it is super secure. The biggest protection you can use you already have mastered. Do not ever click a link, even if it is from a “trusted sight”.
Thank goodness I didn’t click on the link! I keep a separate list of passwords but like it best when the computer remembers them. I use Duck Duck Go also.
Hackers are like wolves trying to get into a hen house. They will circle the building until they find a weak point, then adios polos!
I did find it odd that Spotify got hacked. But you explained it well.
Yep. The wolves are not interested in the door. It has no value. It is just a way into the henhouse.
Also, it’s a free subscription, so they weren’t going to access any $$.
What a lot of stress just before your trip! I have a password manager but don’t use the VPN on my chromebook, although I get the occasional reminders. We had to use a VPN on all our systems at work- I sort of hated it for many reasons.
It was a lot of stress! I struggled with VPN on my trip. I understand why you didn’t like it.
I think it will take a major issue to get me to use a vpn again. Plus I don’t ever open emails from anyone I don’t know, am not on social media as a presence, etc although none of that is a guarantee…
I felt very vulnerable and hadn’t used a VPN before. I’m okay in my own house, it’s just when I was traveling I had issues.
My Spotify got hacked about four years ago…changed playlists and such. What a pain.
I lost everything on Spotify, too. I’m able to log on the laptop, but not the phone, where I enjoy it the most.
I was ok once I switched the password and reloaded in. There’s a way to recover things but I don’t remember how
I’m happy that nothing worse happened!
👍👍
Yikes! I’m so glad you were on top of it and it wasn’t much worse.
It sure could have been worse!
What a pain! I always wonder why things like Spotify get hacked – to what end? I’m sorry for the hassle which seems a little more annoying a day before your trip!
It wasn’t what I wanted to spend hours on that day!
Yikes — what an ordeal, Elizabeth. Thanks for the backstory and the cautionary tale…endless amounts of nonsense…but I’m so glad you were able to tend to the issue swiftly (and kudos to your son for his advice!). 😉
Yes, I would have been lost without my son’s suggestions. He told me when he was off work he’d access my laptop remotely and install everything for me. But, I was able to figure it out on my own 😊
Cheers to all of that! 😉😉😉
👍🏼
I used VPN overseas. It worked well. After I returned from the Middle East, I had a couple of strange male friend requests from Dubai which I blocked. Just the other day, I was informed on wordpress that an artificial response liked me. I deleted and blocked. They liked my response to the best compliment. I have had 75 likes for this response.
Strange! At least you caught it quickly.
Brain-iac As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to feel emotions, (weird)
I needed the VPN in a foreign country and I was on public wi-fi as I lived in a hotel apt.
I had trouble accessing sites with the VPN while traveling in Seattle. But it turned out I’d get logged out and the VPN wouldn’t let me go forward until I logged in.
After being overseas, I had not need to use a VPN. My husband and I were just discussing this.
My Twitter was hacked recently and someone tried to unsuccessfully hack my Instagram a few days later. Unfortunately, it’s quite common especially on social media.
I’ve seen it on FB, so I guess you’re right. My main worry was accounts with credit cards attached.
I never add my credit card information to any social media because there is so much threat of hacking. Especially Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Me too!
If I’ve ever been hacked it was so long ago I’ve forgotten the details. Might have been Facebook. I don’t use VPN or a password manager. People have no shame anymore. They hurt people and don’t care one bit. Scammers stole $400k from my aunt and I swear it killed her. First a bleeding ulcer, then a massive stroke.
That’s a horrible story about your aunt! I’m
so sorry!
I’m still infuriated about it. Hard to forgive such callous, inhuman behavior as stealing that kind of money from a vulnerable person.
I would be infuriated too!
I got Hacked on Facebook. That’s why I quit.
👍🏼
You know if all these hackers got together and put their intelligence together on solving our environmental problems, clean water shortages, food supply, homelessness…etc. wouldn’t the world be a better place? Instead they waste hacking your Spotify account to what avail? It’s crazy. Hugs, C
I like your idea of putting hackers to new careers of better use for society!
If I’m not mistaken, there may be a few who have. Or did I just see that in a movie or TV show?
I think everyone has been hacked on Facebook. I’ll admit to have a “standard” password that I use almost everywhere, sometimes with just a few variations.
I’ve already decided to change almost all of my “identifiers” back to using my maiden name now that I’m divorced. I’m not looking forward to how much time and stress will be involved with doing that, but if I get backed before I start that process I can try to look at that as opportunity and incentive to dive into it pretty quickly!
I also had a standard password. I’m sure that’s very common. But, I went through and changed everything up. It took hours, but I feel better.