When I woke up yesterday morning, I was welcomed to texts, FB messages, voice mail messages, and phone calls for the rest of the day. My contact list was hacked! People were checking in with me.
I confess that I have been using Yahoo Mail for many years. After last year’s news that a half of million accounts were stolen, I continued using Yahoo because it was familiar. Even after the latest announcement that over a billion accounts were compromised, I thought it would not happen to me. Reading my daily emails on a very familiar page is like wearing old shoes after they have seen their last days. I am a creature of habit. It’s not that many haven’t warned me that I needed to switch over to G-Mail. They have but Yahoo Mail became my way of communicating with you and the world.
If adults can have a “bad day,” yesterday was mine. But there’s a silver lining in the Old Shoes of Yahoo Mail for me too. I heard from you inquiring if I was okay and not stuck in the Philippines. You wanted to “do a favor for me” as one of the malware messages asked. One of the silver linings is that I heard from many people whom I have not heard from for many years. A colleague in Honolulu whom I have not heard from for over 30 years, called me. I talked and connected with people literally from all parts of the US. In the SF Bay Area, many of you contacted me. All of you were genuinely concerned for my welfare and offered to help. This is an amazing gift of love and caring at Christmastime.
One of the spam messages included my phone number but two numbers were reversed. Many of you called that number and eventually the real owner of that number texted me to ask me to correct the problem. Another silver lining is that I met a very understanding person as the result of my problem. When I spoke to him directly to apologize for the collateral damage I created, he told me that I had a very caring and exceptionally loving group of contacts. Thank you for being good friends!
No one in their right mind would want their personal information compromised. And I’m sorry that you received one of these fake messages. But because of being hacked and who you are—true friends; there is indeed a silver lining in old shoes! Thank you for being there for me!