Hacked off by crazed ex
Imagine accessing your e-mail account and finding it completely empty. Every e-mail, every contact, and every document, which you thought were safe -- all gone.
That’s what happened to Marianna Keen, a journalism student at London College of Communication (LCC), when an ex-boyfriend hacked into her e-mail account.
I was living in Mexico, and I went to a few Internet cafes thinking there must be some problem, but I was unable to access my account in any way,” Keen said.
Ex changes passwords
She later had a call from her ex-boyfriend telling her what he had done, and giving her the new password to her account.
“My stomach just sunk and I felt sick and so angry,” recalled Keen when she was finally able to access her account.
The ex-boyfriend also provided the new password for her then boyfriend’s account. “He was equally furious to find his account bare,” said Keen.
Mysterious "Penny James"
“He also assumed a new, fake identity, and attempted to trick me, using private information he had found in my e-mail account,” she said.
“I started receiving e-mails from a so-called Penny James claiming to be my then boyfriend’s long-time girlfriend in England, and accusing me of trying to steal him away,” Keen said.
“When I asked my then boyfriend about Penny James, he said she did not exist, and my psycho ex had obviously made up an e-mail account in that name,” said Marianna.
“Later I figured that my ex must’ve correctly guessed the name of my first pet, Gilbert, in order to hack into my e-mail account,” said Keen.
The "secret answer" is a feature on many email accounts, which acts as an alternative access route to the account if the password is forgotten.
"I never thought my pet guinea pig could cause such problems fifteen years after its death," she said. “As children, my friend and I were not keen on my brother throwing the clawed animal at our faces, and a mention of this was made in my Facebook page.”
“I never really worried about my ‘secret answer’ before, but since this incident I’ve created a highly secure password, and have chosen a “secret question” which no-one is likely to guess,” said Marianna. “And the answer’s not on Facebook.”
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