Written by Vicky Wireko Andoh Have you been receiving e-mails telling you that your e-mail provider is updating its records to weed out idol subscribers? Sometimes they will even ask you for some details “to enable your subscriber update your records”. Beware. Ignore such mails. They are fake. I heard people say it and always thought, “How possible”? The reality of internet hacking hit me head-on last week confirming that which I had always doubted. Indeed, my e-mail was hacked, my password was immobilised and I was denied access by the hack attackers. Last Thursday is a day I will never forget. It was the 13th day of the month all right but it was not a Friday so there was nothing traditionally eerie about it. Rather unusually however, from between 10.30 that morning and 7pm, I had recorded almost 40 phone calls, missed calls and text messages. My head was beginning to crack at some stage. The very first call received in the day came from a friend in Johannesburg, South Africa, asking where I was and if I was ok. I thought that was an odd question but no, he had received an e-mail from me that morning which suggested that I went for a business meeting in Lagos, Nigeria where I had been robbed at my hotel and left stranded. The mail further said that I was confused and did not know where to turn for help. On top of all that, the mail continued, “I did not bring along my phone and the only way I could be reached is through the e-mail”. The SOS message went further to request that I needed $2000 to enable me clear my debts in Lagos and get a ticket to return home. The money was to be sent through Western Union and the location address plus the security question and answer were all detailed in the e-mail. I had barely finished speaking to this friend when another call came through from a former Nigerian colleague who lives in Lagos, Nigeria. First she wondered how I could have come to Lagos and not called her if indeed I was stranded. She went on to say that she knew it was a scam because the address given is not a Western Union location. The calls continued. They will not stop. They were coming on the heels of each other and from friends and relations in all corners of the world. By 12.30pm, I had recorded some 27 calls and text messages. I was beginning to get confused. What did I do wrong? How could anyone get access to all my contacts some of whom I had not exchanged mails with for nearly a year? My head was spinning fast but I could not put off my phone because I needed all the calls to reassure my associates that all was well with me in Accra. The logical thing at this stage was to get into my mail and send messages out as soon as possible to allay the fears of my friends and family. But boy, my password would not allow me access. I thought I was not doing something right. I repeated it slowly and carefully but no, access continued to be denied. A friend also offered to try it for me but with no success. What was going on here? What had happened was simple and we all should be careful not to fall prey to idle minds whose only pre-occupation in life is to hatch ways to exploit others through dubious means. That unscrupulous individual had gotten hold of my internet password and like an axe man, had hacked into my e-mail and created his own password to gain access. By doing so, he had locked me out as it were and had gained access to the entire contact list in my address book. He then created a mail purportedly coming from me and then sent copies to everyone on my contact list including institutions. I am told that once they get into your e-mail, they also look to see if you have made any transactions with a bank or with your credit or debit card. If you have, they then pick up the details and before you become aware, they have used your details to take out money or transact business. In between the first mail suggesting that I was stranded and needed $2000, the hacker sent another mail that the money should come quickly because I was in some distress and needed the money urgently to pay off my debts and get an airline ticket back home. Maybe they were getting impatient with the slowness in response? By 7.00pm when the calls staggered I had recorded 40 calls, text messages and missed calls all wanting to know if I was ok defying the hacker’s mail that I did not have my phone on me. Who will travel and leave something as vital as their mobile phone behind? Perhaps it was a trick to divert minds away from calling me to verify. Luckily, a sympathizer managed to get into my mail, threw the hacker out and sent a message to all the contacts on my address list and who may have received copies of the scam not to take it serious and that I was safe at home and never been in Lagos in the past few weeks or days. My prayer was that none of the good people on my address list parted with any sum of money. What happened to me happens on daily basis to scores of other e-mail users. We need to begin to watch out for miscreants even on the internet within the confines of our own four walls where one may think there is no one looking over one’s shoulders. Indeed, this rude awakening has reminded me that that is not so and that just like any environment, when on the internet, we need to learn to protect ourselves. That reminds me of a CNN feature story shown recently. The story was in effect drawing attention to the spread of internet crime and warning people who get into the habit of using their laptops at busy crowded places like airports to be wary. Unmindful of who is stealing a look and taking vital information from a mail or a transaction being made in haste, many fall victim to internet fraudsters all the time at busy airport lounges and waiting areas. Internet security is now a must for those of us who depend daily on computers to do our work. We just have to watch out as to what we do when on the internet. Through my experience of last week, I have come to realise among other things that e-mails from unknown sources are most often spam and they are better ignored or deleted. Sometimes however, the hackers will send seemingly genuine messages from your bank or e-mail provider. They will ask for details such as your account number, your email address, password, your date of birth, your country and the like and make it seem if you do not respond you will lose your account. I am told that one should ignore such mails outright or treat them with contempt. Any mistake to oblige such requests means doom. Come to think of it, one’s bank or e-mail provider already has all of one’s vital information so why would they come asking for it via e-mail? Again, it is common knowledge that if one travels outside one’s country and gets stranded for whatever reason and if there is no friend or family to reach, the initial thing to do is to report to one’s embassy or high commission for assistance and not send SOS messages through e-mails. If it is a lost airline ticket, will it not be logical to report to the airline? As all that happened to me was settling down, someone shared with me the experience of a UN staff whose e-mail was attacked by an internet hacker in a similar manner. The fraudster managed to send a mail from this UN staff’s e-mail to his employer saying that he, the staff, had been kidnapped and his kidnappers are demanding a ransom of some amount to be deposited at a given address without fail. The alleged kidnappers succeeded. The UN paid the ransom before they realized that it was all a scam. Modernity has broadened our outlook but it has exposed us too wide, even to a fault. Now it is becoming increasingly difficult to trust anyone no matter what. Internet fraud is very real and it is fast gaining grounds. It looks like the perpetrators are making a gold mine out of it and getting away with it too. Do we have a way out? The CCTI loan saga during the NPP Government’s term of office where a whole sovereign state was led to believe that a financier whose address was traced to a hair dressing salon could give Ghana a handsome loan with attractive terms keeps playing back to me. Was that an internet fraud? We definitely need more education on the dos and don’ts when on the internet, especially with unsolicited e-mails. We all need to be on the look out. Source: Daily Graphic Reality Zone With Vicky Wireko Email: vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com