This episode of Hackers I dislike a lot

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By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

Upon hearing of some cases that have popped up on my Facebook feed of accounts being nefariously hacked, I too fell victim to this Tuesday morning as now anyone who has me a friend on their Facebook has had my name replaced by some Arabic and a picture of someone in native headdress.

It looks like all my pictures are there and the thread seems to be intact, and thankfully no one is charging copious amounts of purchases to my lone credit card as I checked in my paranoia even though I do not recall using my credit card to purchase anything off of Facebook in the first place.

But given the hack occurred smack dab in the middle of page layout day, I’ve literally been banging my head against the wall to reclaim the page (if that is even possible at this point).
I’ve warned various friends to put a notice up on their Facebook just in case this hacker tries to glean information from them.

The fact Facebook has no direct line for technical aid has put me in a fabulous mood as all my co-workers will attest to this fine and sunny day, which is a juxtaposition to my cloudy attitude.

The help centre for Facebook has been quite helpful in noting that my Facebook information was changed at around 6-7 a.m. on Tuesday and typing in my old password I can try and reclaim my Facebook account.

What Facebook doesn’t seem to understand is, in setting up my Facebook account with new codes is of very little help when who they are sending the new codes to is the new address the hacker has set up, and looks like it is locked in with no other option offered.

I may be missing something, but would it not be prudent to send them to the phone number you put on the original Facebook account as the hacker has not taken that avenue over?

I’m likely missing something here because I admit, me and technology is like watching a scene out of Quest for Fire in trying to tackle any tasks in which technology is involved.

Once this paper is put to rest, I’ll go back to trying to fix the mess.

Trying to see if I could trouble shoot the problem quickly with Google searches has only continued to have myself at the mercy of the shady culture of computer fraud.

Check for some Microsoft ‘help’ numbers on Google and I ran into someone saying there is a ‘one-time fee’ in which I hung up finding out it was a false number.

There is no actual Facebook help number…if you find one in a Google search, that is a scam as well.

There are a lot worse things to happen in life than having your Facebook account hacked, but I’ve grown attached to the medium. I like it serving as a way to stay connected with family and friends from far away as you get a window into what is happening in their lives.

Sharing memes, cracking jokes, getting political at times.

Friends and co-workers have been trying to be quite helpful in finding ways to get back to my original account despite my overall surliness and as one co-worker has pointed out, instead of trying to do five things at once, perhaps concentrating on one task before trying another is the best way to tackle the problems of the day.

It does seem to be Murphy’s Law as of late since returning from Las Vegas to attend a friend’s wedding.

On top of the Facebook hack, I got to enjoy driving over an X-acto knife blade as I was returning home to freshen up for the black-tie dinner for the 75th anniversary celebration of our local air cadet squadron.

Adding in on the fun is my Pittsburgh Penguins all of a sudden forgetting how to play hockey and blowing a 3-1 series lead to force Game 7 against the Washington Capitals in the NHL playoffs.

These past few days could not have gotten much worse…hopefully there are better days ahead this week.

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