#digital tips

For the past month, I've done an online safety awareness campaign where I posted tips on how to be safe online every day. Now that the series is over, it's time to put it all in one place.

Rule One: Screenshot Harassment

Rule Two: Direct Messaging Safety

Rule Three: Consequences of Online Behavior

Rule Four: Deepfakes and Fake News

Rule Five: Oversharing

Rule Six: Scam Awareness

Rule Seven: Internet Trolls

Rule Eight: Phishing Awareness

Rule Nine: Don't Trust Everyone You Meet

Rule Ten: Password Protection

Rule Eleven: Log Out of Public Devices

Rule Twelve: Treat Others With Respect

Rule Thirteen: Sketchy Ads

Rule Fourteen: Location Tracking

Rule Fifteen: Delete Doesn't Mean Gone

Rule Sixteen: Online Arguments

Rule Seventeen: Don't Share Your Location Online

Rule Eighteen: Keep Private Things Private

Rule Nineteen: Know When To Disconnect

Rule Twenty: Catfishing Scams

Rule Twenty-One: Don't Mix Personal And Internet Lives

Rule Twenty-Two: Downloading Safety

Rule Twenty-Three: Google Yourself

Rule Twenty-Four: Social Media Isn't Real

Rule Twenty-Five: Report Harassment

Rule Twenty-Six: Clear Your Browser Cache

Rule Twenty-Seven: Public Wi-Fi Has Risks

Rule Twenty-Eight: Credit Other's Content

Rule Twenty-Nine: Sometimes You Should Be Quiet

Rule Thirty: Use Strong Security Questions

Rule Thirty-One: Your Friends Can Be Hacked

a few days ago, I was reached out by (who I THOUGHT) was a friend. I played video games with her, I chatted with her plenty, we were quite familiar and friendly! I was asked how I was doing and she asked if I had like 10 ish minutes to try out her friend’s game. Cool! Yay! Awesome!? WRONG. That WASN’T my friend. It was a hacker, that link that I visited and downloaded the “game” to play test was a software that steals tokens for alll my accounts saved to my computer. Once I tried to run the game, I immediately got emails from discord saying I changed my password and then EMAIL. My discord account was completely compromised and I was unable to access it. And then this loser of a hacker sent me alllllllllll my emails and passwords that they had received, my bank card info, credit card info, PHOTOS of my ID saved. I was immediately thrown into panic. As things progressed and we tried to get through the events happening right in front of our eyes… We reached out to a friend with knowledge about this sort of thing and he walked us through every step. Immediately unplugged the internet connection to the computer, and shut it down. Luckily the loser ass hacker was such an idiot, and sent the list of alllllllllll the info he had on me, so I knew what passwords to change and which accounts to freeze and request new cards. And then! I had to reach out to discord, let them know the timeline, give all information about the situation and hopefully they could fix the problem. Sleeping that night was quite difficult. The stress, the anxiety, the frustration and the sadness took over and really held me for a while. Not so long later (literally the next day) I received an email stating that discord took control of the situation, and reverted my account back to its rightful owner: ME!! Please learn from my mistakes, don’t be too trusting and naive like I was. I know everyone has told me that truly I didn’t do anything wrong, but of course I will always feel really guilty about the situation. Protect yourself and protect your valuable information and accounts. Do not click random links and PLEASE do not download anything you aren’t ABSOLUTELY sure it’s safe.

Discord, very kindly sent me two links to add into the arsenal of protection sources I was aware of and I would like to share them with whoever may want or need em.

Have I Been Pwned is a website where you can search your email, and they will tell you if your information has been released to those you may not want it to be released to. They list who, when, even potentially WHAT data. Very helpful insight and information.

AND

VirusTotal is a website where you can scan for potential harmful links. ezpz!

finally, here is a picture of me freaking the freak out, at the time of the incident. though I am better than the days prior, I still am dealing with stress and anxiety triggers throughout my day, and I don’t really exactly know whats causing them or how to help. I just hope that very soon, I will be able to look back at this moment and be able to laugh or something.

Thank you for your time! And PLEASE:

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