Hi @cryptosharon
Thanks for spreading the word about this one.
I was stupid enough to get my account hacked 2 weeks ago. Once the hackers got control over my site, they used it to send out a huge number of their phishing messages to others. For protection, all those comments were flagged by Steemcleaners, so they would become invisible. As a result, my reputation dropped to -1.
I consider myself as one of the fortunate few, because I got my account ánd reputation score back.
Once I had regained access to my account, I had to manually edit all the phishing comments the hackers sent out in order to make them harmless. Once that was done, I was happy that Steemcleaners and all individuals that flagged my comments, were prepared to take their flags away, so my reputation score went back up to where it was before the hack.
Ever since, I’m trying to raise awareness. Not only about the phishing messages itself, but also about how to get your account back once it has been hacked - I’ll leave a link to my guide at the bottom. If you know anyone that has been scammed, please send him/her to it, before they ruin their account by taking the wrong steps. I promise, the link is legit ;0)
Another important message I’m trying to spread is that most (not all) phishing messages are sent out through hacked accounts. I’ve seen loads of messages in which people openly accuse others for being a scammer, while this person was only a victim, and was stupid enough to get his account hacked.
Again, some accounts are from real scammers, but that’s a minority.
That’s why I’d like to ask people like @onepercentbetter and @martin.mikes, who both commented below, to keep an eye on the comment they have flagged. There’s a chance the users will regain access to their account, and work for hours to edit the comments one by one to make them harmless, just like I did. Once you see this happen, please be kind enough to take a away your flag. By doing so, you’re giving this user a chance to get the reputation score he has worked so hard for back.
Here’s the link to my story, and a guide on how to recover after getting hacked:
https://steemit.com/mapsters/@simplymike/got-hacked-here-s-how-to-get-your-account-and-reputation-score-back
Thanks for tagging me on this one, @spiritualmax!
By the way, If I got it right, @anyx is working on a detection/warning bot, that will hopefully reduce the damage that is being done now.
the one i flagged most likely is a spam account.
Yes, I've also seen many who are rep 25, no profile picture, no messages, only phishing comments. They could still be new users, but regardless many are blank accounts.
yeah exactly.
Wooooooo
Amazing how the whole system is responding to it. I hope that anyx's bot brings much more safety to Steem. I would also do one but I'm a newbie with this. I still need more experience and more set up for a successful Steem bot.
Thanks for this message, Mike. I'll pass it on to whoever gets their account hacked. It must be horrible for the person.
May I ask how they got access to your "site" through your Steem password? Or do you refer to your account and by extension the Steem blog and commenting features?
I simply made a stupid mistake. After spending the last 20 years online, I should have known bettter...
I received a ‘grumpy cat’ flag on my post. (I think I was one if the first, so there were no warning messages yet)
I didn’t do anything wrong, so I clicked the ‘learn more’ link. I was asked to log in. So I did - SteemIt had been acting up, so having to log in was not new. I was using my phone, so didn’t properly checked the URL. SteemiL it was...
On top of that no one ever told me that your ‘password’ isn’t supposed to be used as your password, that you should lock it away in some safe place and use your private posting key to log in instead...
The moment I had logged in to this fake site they had everything...
If I’m not mistaking, the bot is called @ guard
Yes, this seems to be Anyx's bot. Link to intro post