One thing you should consider is to sign up for credit and identity monitoring through one of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. You can write all of these down, or use a good password manager app.Īt this point, you’ve done almost as much as you can do to recover access and protect your online identity. Each website or app should have its own unique password. 15 or more characters is the way to go, following each online sites’ password complexity rules. For some, you may be better off calling them (if they are a business with a physical location and phone number you have).Ī word of warning: do not reset all those passwords with a common replacement, or one that’s too short. You can do most of this online, using the forgotten password feature of their website. Also contact any other entities where you have online accounts setup, including your internet or cable TV service provider, utility companies, membership sites – anything else you can remember without having to use your compromised computer. Start with your Microsoft account (if your computer uses Windows), or Apple account (if you use a Mac) and then move onto any online shopping destinations you’ve used, such as, ,, etc. Once you’ve regained access to your email account, you can start to go to your other online accounts and reset their passwords. Be sure to use a long password that you can remember (or write it down or use a password manager app). If you use another email service, follow their instructions to recover and reset your password. Follow the on-screen instructions (you may need to use the link that says “Try another way” till you find a way that works to recover access to your account). At this point, you may have alternate ways to recover your account access, depending on whether you have a smartphone with the Google app installed, have 2-factor authentication enabled on your Google account, or have a recovery phone number or email address previously setup. Fill in your Gmail address, and click the blue Next button. For your Google/Gmail account, go to and click blue Sign in button. This is very important since so many online entities use your email address as a way to reset passwords or regain access. Next, you need to use a clean or unhacked computer (yours or a trusted friend’s) or device (smartphone or tablet) to try to regain access to your email account(s). This helps to stop the hackers from stealing your money as the companies will be watching for suspicious transactions. Also contact your bank(s), investment companies and anyone else where you have monetary assets – report that you’ve been hacked. Credit card companies are usually pretty good about not charging the cardholder for fraudulent purchases, as long as they’ve been notified in a timely matter. You might even find that the money they’ve already stolen from you gets returned. Not just the credit card the hackers have been using, but all your credit cards- each will freeze your current account and mail you replacement credit cards. Now, you need to call all your financial institutions and let them know you’ve been compromised. The longer the hacker has access to your personal information, the more they can compromise you – locking you out of your own accounts, stealing your money, and misusing your online identity. The rest of this article outlines actions you should take as soon as you possibly can, and time is of the essence. Likely, they’ve already hoovered up all your personal data and saved passwords to online accounts, but this important first step helps to limit the damage. That keeps the hackers from continuing to access your computer. Now, shut off your computer and leave it off for now. What do I do now? My computer isn’t connected in any way with my employer, so this is affecting just my personal life.įirst, take a deep breath. Now my files are disappearing, I can’t get into my email account (wrong password), and I’m seeing purchases I didn’t make on my credit card. I fell for it, had a computer problem and gave someone remote access to my computer to fix it. I’ve Been Hacked – What Do I Do? A reader asks…
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