Annoying, Or What?

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Ever had one of these weeks where it feels like someone has deliberately set out to annoy you? Well that’s me this week! Let me tell you a story.

It began on Monday afternoon when my best friend from schooldays, with whom I am still in regular touch, WhatsApped me to tell me that he thought my email account had been hacked, as it came as a surprise to him to receive an invitation from me to a party! Knowing my circumstances he knew that was impossible. A little later my ex-wife also messaged, to say that she, both of our daughters, their husbands, and one son-in-law’s father had also received the same email. Only one answer to that: some bastard had hacked my account. I immediately changed the password and thought that would be the end of things, but the aftermath has lingered.

Some of you may have wondered why you saw this week’s Tuesday Tunes post twice, and some of you were even kind enough to ‘like’ it both times. As a check, I follow my own blog, and knew I had a problem as soon as I posted it: I didn’t get the usual notification email. But I realised that my inbox was almost entirely empty, and began doing a passable impression of this guy:

Created by me and ChatGPT

To resolve the blog issue, as I assumed that none of my followers who relied on email notifications would be in the loop, I changed the email address associated with my WordPress account to my backup email, duplicated the original post, and republished it. That seems to have worked, as I got the notification immediately, as I should. I have also been receiving notifications on that account of posts from blogs I follow, so I think that part of my world is safe. For my post, I left the first publication open and interestingly the two are very similar in their stats: the second version is just ahead on ‘likes’ – by the massive margin of one. Combined, the two versions have roughly the same number of views and likes as I would usually expect, so I think I’ve recovered it well enough.

But that still leaves my email account and its total lack of communications: why is no one talking to me? Amongst all the crap that finds its way in there are some I really need to see, like communications from my bank. I spent most of Tuesday opening up the account in the vain hope that, as if by magic, loads of emails would suddenly tumble out of the ether. Nope, nothing. So I decided yesterday to go down the route we all try to avoid: finding my way through the maze of ‘helpful’ tips in the hope of reaching a point of contact. As part of that I did find that someone in another part of the UK had set up a passkey on the account on Sunday – definitely not me, so I deleted that. I managed to find the bit where Yahoo finally stopped sending me around the maze and gave me a way of raising the issue with them, so I did.

This is where I almost lost it. Having reported the problem I got a final screen which said that one of their team would shortly be in touch – by email. Spot the problem? Of course, nothing much changed for the rest of yesterday, and not knowing how long their usual responses took I gave up for the day and decided to return again today after my usual night of disturbed sleep to have another go. I did see one small change yesterday, though: six new emails appeared in my inbox. Guess what they were? Yep, the ones which the hackers had sent out to around fifty people inviting them to my party. I just hope they all ignored it, as many of them are long distant vague acquaintances and others I didn’t even know!

I also tried checking the other folders in my account, and lo an behold there were more than 200 unread emails in my Trash folder, including yesterday’s automated reply from Yahoo telling me that it would take them eight hours and that recovery might only be partial, at best. Too right! I have now spent some time restoring to my inbox the ones I wanted to have, but can only do that by using the web version – their app doesn’t allow such changes. Another little bit of added annoyance and frustration, just to add to my day.

I think I’m up to date with your blogs from Tuesday morning onwards, but if anyone is missing a like or comment that you might otherwise have expected from me, please accept my apologies and this explanation. I just can’t cope with more!

One underlying question has been left with me after this episode: why do they do it? Are they hoping someone will be sufficiently stupid to start giving them details that could cost them money? I check my bank account online every day and would quickly spot any fraudulent transactions, and I’m sure most people do the same. If not, you should! Maybe it is their perverse way of having fun? If so, I have a simple message for them: “Go Fuck Yourselves!”

As always, I leave you with a tune. This kind of sums up the way I was feeling yesterday, in particular:

See you again for Song Lyric Sunday 👍🎶

66 thoughts on “Annoying, Or What?”

    • I wasn’t too pleased either! It’s mostly sorted, apart from most new emails going straight to the Trash folder, which is easy enough to deal with 😊

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  3. Oh how awful, Clive! The amount of work you have to do to deal with a hacker seems never-ending. Friends of ours had their bank account hacked a few years ago and they had a terrible time. I had my Facebook account hacked a while ago and had to delete everything on it and start again.

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    • Thank you, Clare. At least they didn’t attack my bank account, not so far anyway. I’ve changed the password and am using my backup email for the blog, and apart from all new emails going straight to the Trash folder all seems ok-ish 🤞

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  5. That’s terrible, Clive!!! No, not the song, but what is happening with your email account. Like you, I check my bank balance EVERY day and never open suspicious emails. I hope you can get the problem resolved soon! As re the song … oh my! It’s been ages since I’ve heard that one, but it always gets my toes tappin’ and now I think it’s stuck in my head! Take care, my dear friend.

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    • Thanks for your support, Jill. Fortunately they have updated their app and I can now easily move emails from Trash to Inbox to keep them, so it is now just an inconvenience. And using the backup email account for my blog seems to be working well enough. But I’d still like to get my hands on the scumbags who did it! There haven’t been any odd transactions on my bank account so I’m hoping that, four days on, there won’t be.

      Sorry about the earworm but it seemed a good fit 👍

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      • As if you needed another headache. Sigh. I truly despise those who, rather than work for a living, spend their time trying to scam us! I am glad to know your bank balance is untouched and I hope it stays that way. Several years ago, ours was drained … luckily, the bank covered our loss and even gave us a little extra, as it was partly their fault, but still, the trauma of it was awful. No worries ’bout the earworm … I like the song, so I’m happily humming it!

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      • P.S. Just HAD to tell you this … just now, I was working the NYT Crossword Puzzle for Friday (don’t tell anyone, but I do the crossword every day in hopes of keeping some semblance of a sharp mind) and one of the clues read: Beatles song with the lyric “I tried to telephone / They said you were not home / That’s a lie” I might not have gotten that, had the song not still been in my mind from earlier today! Thanks, Clive!

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      • What an amazing coincidence! Nothing wrong with doing the puzzle. I don’t read the paper but have an annual subscription to their puzzles app. I haven’t tried the crossword but do several of the others every day.

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      • For me it’s Wordle, Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, The Mini, The Midi, and occasionally Pips. I’ve tried Strands and Connections but didn’t really get on with them.

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      • I do Spelling Bee every now and then, but it often frustrates me. And Letter Boxed … I’ve tried it a few times and just cannot figure it out! I did forget to mention Sudoku, though … I think I’m more of a numbers person than letters person! I also do the Mini and sometimes, time permitting, the Midi. Good to find a puzzler friend!

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      • There aren’t many in their app, but as it’s free I can hardly complain! I also read the paper without paying, as it is included in an app called Readly, to which I subscribe. Many papers and magazines for around £9 a month – bargain!

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      • The Guardian is one of my main sources for news and opinion pieces, and while my subscription isn’t free, I think it’s reasonable at $5 per month … especially as compared to my New York Times subscription that’s $25 per month! I checked out the puzzles & games on The Guardian, but didn’t have time to try any of them out … maybe tomorrow!

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      • Its a good newspaper, a more left wing antidote to the rabid right wing rags that make up most of our market. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of the puzzles, though I’m guessing the selection will be different there: I don’t imagine they will have the one about English Premier League footballers!

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      • Haven’t checked them out yet, but I will definitely let you know what I think. I have the option to read the U.S. version or the UK version, and I often read some of each. Hmmmm … maybe I should try the UK version for the games … not that I’d have a clue about English Premier League footballers!!! 🤣🤣 But then, I don’t have a clue about U.S. footballers either, for football has never been of any interest to me!

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      • It will be an interesting comparison. It’s not just English footballers, it can be anyone who has played in our Premier League. The answer to today’s, which I knew, was a goalkeeper from Finland 🤣

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      • I’ll be sure to let you know! Heck, I cannot even answer the NYT ones about sports most of the time, though I did get one right tonight! If you can name a goalkeeper from Finland, then you deserve a gold medal!!! 🏅

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  6. I have two email accounts. A GMail one that I have linked to my blog notifications, and a Yahoo.com one that I have had for 24 years and use mainly for personal emails. Ten years ago, a cousin emailed me to ask if I had sent him a link to sex services in a European massage parlour. Of course I hadn’t, and told him not to open the link. I changed my password as a precaution, and that seemed to cure it overnight. It seems the hacker only sent the one email about the massage services, perhaps as a ‘test’. Luckily, I changed the password before they could send more. I tried to contact Yahoo about how they might have got the password, but got lost in a circular runaround of denials that ended up blaming me for giving out my password. So I feel your pain.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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    • That’s quite the story! It’s good that they didn’t send it to many – mine went to at least sixty that I know of! I also had a second account which is now linked to my blog and seems to be working as it should. I have a partial recovery of my Yahoo one – the odd thing being that all new messages go straight to the Trash folder, so I have to read them from there. Weird, eh?

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      • All I’ve had from them is a standard automated reply, but at least it didn’t accuse me of that!

        It’s strange reading them from there, but at least I get the chance to move them to the proper inbox before they do their next automatic clean of the Trash!

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  7. Life is complicated and hard enough to deal with all the problems we didn’t create ourselves. Hopefully, it’s one of those things that magically starts working the way it should again. in the meantime . . . AHHHHHH!

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  11. Oh, my gosh, what an odyssee. I am sorry this happened to you, Clive. No one is safe from such folks. While reading your lines I too thought: Why are they doing this? What is their benefit? Only just making life hard for someone else? I don’t know, it is just sad. But I admire you for all your efforts and how you got all of your accounts back under control.

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  14. Join the club…Clive except my hacker actually accessed my Uk bank and tried to change the pwd luckily I knew when I got the phone call that I hadn’t accessed my account and terminated the call …What they had done was attached their numbers to my banks telephone number which I am guessing was then rerouted to them so if I had been stupid enough to confirm the said code they would have been in my bank account…my bank also caught them and put a stop on my account and asked me to call which I did and then had to change all my pwds with the bank …it has taken me numerous trips to the pc shop and resets and eventually a reformat of my hard drive which is why I have been awol for a few weeks I now have a new laptop plus my 8 month old laptop and have been told to keep my banking separated from my downloads and online shopping and I am now a certified paranoid maniac surrounded by 2 laptops and my iphone…I also echo your final words *******…

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    • It sounds like yours was much bigger than mine. I’m pleased you finally sorted it all out, but at the cost of money and time, not to mention what it did to your mental health! They are a modern day scourge, and just keep on doing it. A huge menace xx

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      • It was an absolute nightmare Clive I was not in a good place and even now I am back to normal I keep expecting it to reappear again it was definitely a cost and time as the shop just wouldn’t do the reformatting they just kept blaming the bank as if a bank would put a virus on your laptop ..Luckily my grandson came for a visit and took it up the shop and told them what needed doing …xxx

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  15. These invasions of privacy are difficult to deal with, and they shouldn’t happen, but they do and no one is safe. I am sorry your life has been turned upside down; it is a total drag. To add insult to injury, I know that you won’t even be able to read this comment because of some stupid WordPress snafu, and you will most likely be fishing me out of spam yet again. My sympathies, my friend. It shouldn’t be like this, but it is and we are the unfortunate recipients of what I like to call The Old BOHĒCA …. Bend Over Here It Comes Again! 😖

    Just one last question: does this mean the party is canceled? 😂 Good luck, Clive!

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    • You’re so right, and I did indeed have to fish this out of spam, having marked ‘not spam’ for the umpteenth time.

      Sorry, yes, it’s off: I’m not in a party mood 🤣

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  16. I got frustrated for you just reading what you went through! then I laughed with the song choice…hope you can fully put this annoyance behind you and it’s a reminder that we use these electronic services for so many things now!

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  19. From someone who has found doing the most straightforward things online, or indeed offline, recently since I moved I have a flavour of how frustrating this must have been. It wastes so much time that you would normally take on researching and writing the blog you love, and of course the possible threat to your identity and finances. I can understand how this must have driven you mad, I hope it feels resolved now.

    Is it still okay to read and respond to Tuesday’s blog?

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    • Absolutely! I think I’ve done all I can and am keeping fingers crossed that there are no other effects. It just feels a bit odd having to check the trash folder as well as my inbox, though a new one did land in the inbox just after I posted this. Now I think they’re watching me 🤣

      Thank you for asking. Yes, the post is still there for you – it’s in the recent posts list to the right of the page. All visits welcome 👍

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  20. Sorry to hear you’re going through this Clive. It’s more than frustrating when these crawlers show up and make life hectic. I hope you get it all straightened out soon my friend. A sad event but the song is an excellent choice.

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