My Cousin was hacked over the weekend.

• Friday 5am an I.P. address from South Korea attempted access to his FACEBOOK – failed.
• They then tried his email – failed.
• They then went after a less secure site UBISOFT (often used for gaming) – successful.
  • From there they changed his password.
  • Obtained his DOB (DOB’s are required in many cases online to prove you are over 18, you can't legally sign T&C <18yr sold).
  • On Saturday they gained access to FACEBOOK with his DOB – successful.
  • Changed his password, his linked email address and phone number, so he could not gain access or reset anything.
  • A family member could see activity on his FB, and it had Chinese writing.
  • Fraudsters asked friends and family for small loans – sadly, a couple fell for it without verifying in a phone call and transferred £500 to the hackers - Covered in my book.
  • It also ruins family and friendship relationships, as the victim want you to reimburse them.
  • Since this people from other parts of the world have also tried to access his accounts.

Unfortunately – my cousin is typical of 90% of the population using the same password for everything with his first letter as upper case.

HOW HACKERS WORK

• Hackers go after less secure sites such as retail websites first to get your details.
• (Curry’s was hacked in 2018, I was notified by email, my data was stolen, the hackers also disabled the password reset facility, so it took 12-months to change my password).
• Once they hack such places, they try the same email/password combination in other places, EMAIL, PayPal, BANKING, because so many people use the same password for everything.
• Once they get into your email, they can reset anything and completley ruin your life.
• Many sites store card details for quicker purchases.

My book password chapter talks about a tired system for passwords to make it easier.

Before I discovered password managers, I did use one password for websites where no bank cards were saved.