Hacked on Twitter! Here's How It Happened

“All you have to do is exercise reasonable precautions.”

DI Lestrade, Sherlock: A Study in Pink, written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss

DI Lestrade would be shaking his head at me. Sherlock would have kicked me out of his rooms a word and a half into my story. But here is my story. I admit I acted foolishly and did not use reasonable precautions. I got tricked into giving away my sign-in and password to my Twitter account. And that was the password to a number of other accounts as well. 

Late last Sunday afternoon, my phone beeped as it always does to alert me that I had an email. I get email every time I am mentioned on or Retweeted on Twitter. Good thing! The email said I had been Retweeted. I looked to see what tweet of mine had been retweeted. Hmmmm...A Dr. Oz diet tip with a link. I had never tweeted any such thing.

I rushed to the computer, knowing I'd been hacked. Someone was now sending spam as me, to steal more passwords no doubt.

Here's How The Heinous Hackers Got My Info:

Earlier in the day I had gotten the following tweet from someone I follow who was in the middle of reading my book: ‪

@gvrcorcillo book is freaking funny I bout peed myself lol #shelikesitrough

Not long after, I got another tweet from someone I follow:

@gvrcorcillo rofl this was made by you? Tinyurl.com/xxxxxxx

(I have taken out the actual link numbers and letters to avoid spreading the piracy plague.)

So I'm thinking, “Did he see the other texts and get my book? Is he a fan? Is that a link to something about my book and how awesome it is?” Yep, the writer demon in me craving praise at any cost took over and gleefully clicked the link. After some glitching, a page opened. And then things got really stupid.

Here is the page that came up:

Screenshot from http://www.zdnet.com

There was the Twitter Bird in the corner and the screen's background was that blue cloud background Twitter has as one of its backgrounds. 

“Oh,” I thought. “Okay. Sign in again.” I was actually pretty annoyed. Seriously, I was as eager to see good stuff about my book as Johnny Dangerously's brother was to get laid in the courthouse on his wedding day. So I quickly signed in with my user name and password, positively jonesing to see what my fan had said. But, the page crashed. And I thought, “Oh, well. Advertising spam. Sigh.” Completely discounting that I had just SIGNED IN on the bogus page!!!!

A few hours later, when I saw that @gvrcorcillo had tweeted two Dr. Oz diet tip tweets that I HAD NEVER TWEETED, it slammed into me like an overpowering wave off shore – the kind that grinds your face into the sand at the bottom: I had given away the keys to my Twitter Kingdom.

I immediately got onto Twitter and deleted the two bogus Tweets. Then I changed my password . Then I sent out a bunch of Tweets explaining thatI'd been hacked and that my Dr. Oz tweets were from Hackers. Then I reported the violation to Twitter. Then I changed every single password I have for anything. The good news is that I just went back into the bogus rotf tweet I originally got. When I clicked on the link, the bogus sign-in page did not come up. Instead, a message cam up telling me that the link was unsafe. And it did not ask me to sign in!

Let me be clear: I am not warning anyone away from clicking on links on Twitter - there is a lot of cool stuff to be found by clicking twitter links - such as my books in many of my own tweets! But DO NOT sign in after you have clicked a link.

This kind of hacking is called phishing, and if it happens to you, forward the suspicious  tweet to spoof@twitter.com then DELETE THE TWEET.

Twitter is wonderful and I love to tweet, but... 

"Beware the the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"
Jabberwocky, written by Lewis Carroll

Sincerely,


GVR Corcillo
@gvrcorcillo 

The Very Best Part

What a day! I have spent a great deal of today doing doing necessary work things that make my stomach feel icky and uncomfortable. But then I forgot all about that when I opened an email message tonight that I thought was from my nephew but really it was some sort of awful spam trap that signed me up to some skeevy dating site! Before I even realized what was happening, sixteen guys liked me and one wanted to meet me! It was so - gross! The site had raided my facebook profile and knew all my personal stuff! I was freaking out until my husband finally got my info and picture (Eeeew!) off the site. Yick!!

I feel like I need a shower and a whiskey. But I don't drink and I cannot blog from the shower.

So, I will instead focus on a more pleasant aspect of my day.

My little sister bought my book today!  Now let me tell you about my kid sister Marice. There's too much history and a lot of it involves shouting, frustration, lots of ruined clothes and shoes, lots of good money thrown after bad, arrests, two trips to the hospital, and, once upon a time, a punch. But that history also involves a beautiful woman with a ready laugh and an unbelievable Zen optimism. It also involves some of the funniest stories woven through my life. It involves a beautiful young man, an amazing girl, and an adorable boy who have my sister's life force. It involves shared hurt, tears, and confusion. It involves dreams that never die.

But most importantly, no matter what happens between us or what words are said, I can't help but just plain like her!

And today she bought my book. And my sister and I like to read the same kinds of books. So, I think she will actually read it!! And then - and this is the VERY BEST PART - we can talk about it! I am dying for someone to read my book and talk to me about it - tell me what they think and how they felt. And I KNOW I can trust Marice to be honest. We have never had to take off the gloves with each other because they have simply never been on.

Here's the thing - I love my book. It's, like, one of my favorite books, up there with The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Ender's Game and Touch Not the Cat. I want to talk about the book like I cannot wait to talk to my friend Rebecca as soon as I read an Izzy Spellman book or how I want to talk to Greg after I see a Battlestar Gallactica or Sherlock episode.

So, if you have read any of my books or stories, I would love to hear from you - either as a comment on this blog or send me a note on my website by clicking the "Contact GVR" button at the top of this page.

I'd love to hear from you, because discussing my book with readers is the very best part.

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall