Back on July 5, 2024, a friend of mine, Michael Whitehouse, shared an email after his LinkedIn account was hacked and he was locked out. He sent out an email on how to fix that, and what to do to avoid things like that in the future.

He’s a smart guy, and rather than me interpreting what he said in his email, he gave me permission to send out exactly what he wrote.

Here it is:

This is not the email I had intended to send out this morning, but that plan has become, as they say, Overcome By Events.

My LinkedIn account has been compromised, and I know that many of the people in my email community are also connected to me through LinkedIn.

If you receive a LinkedIn message from me that seems suspicious, especially if it is asking you for Money or personal information, do not respond. Instead, please forward it to me by email.

How did it happen?

At around 3 AM this morning, I received an email informing me that my password had been successfully changed.

Upon waking at 6 AM, I saw the message. Upon attempting to log in, I discovered that my email had been removed, but the back up email was still there. The back up was one that I did not realize was on the account and was attached to a domain that I no longer own.

I attempted to contact LinkedIn support through their support page and could not find the right page, so I went to their Facebook page and send them a message there.

Their automated response on Facebook sent me to the right link which allowed me to report the problem and, within a few minutes, sent me the tools to verify my identity.

That all being done, it said it would take 24-48 to address the situation.

What you can learn from this?

I always like to say that I make mistakes so you don’t have to. So, what can you learn from my adventure?

1. Keep calm

As Gene Krantz said in Apollo 13: “Let’s work the problem. Let’s not make it worse by guessing.” Depending on the hack or scam, they may be counting on you panicking and acting impulsively. If you get freaked out, you go into fight or flight which draws blood away from your smart thinky brain parts. You will need your smart thinky brain parts to work the problem.

Keep calm. Whatever the situation, you can work through it.

2. Check your backup contact info

Hackers buy up discarded domains, so if you have a back up email account on a domain that you might be letting go be sure to change that. Check the back up phone number as well.

3. Have a non-obvious log in

I actually learned this from when my Facebook got hacked. If the email you use to log in is the same as the one publicly available on the account,then you make the hacker’s job a lot easier. An added level of Security is not to make your publicly available email your log in.

4. Reach companies through social media

Many sites such as LinkedIn require you to be logged in to your account to contact Customer Support. This is a problem if you are locked out of your account. I was able to reach LinkedIn them through their Facebook page. Many of these companies can be contacted through Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or even Tiktok. So if their main page can’t be reached by social media.

5. Social media is a foundation of sand

I use social media extensively, but my business is not built on it. If you build your business on social media, then you are building your home on a foundation of sand, and your landlord is a lunatic. Always be aware that you can lose access to any social media account at any time for any reason.

6. Never pay people in gift cards

I hope you already know this, but if someone ever asks you to buy a gift card for them instead of paying by credit card or Paypal or some other reputable means, it is a probably a scam. If you think it might be legit, get the person on the telephone or a video call to confirm.

And if you want to reach out to Michael based on his extensive knowledge, you can use this link he created:  CLICK HERE and book a call now!

To Your Prosperity (and Protection),

Rennie