Our digital self often has to face incidents that have to do with our data. Sometimes it can happen that they have hacked an online account that belongs to you. This article talks about ways to recover your account on various social networks.
Lately there is a huge increase in attacks on Facebook, often caused by the use of the same password on multiple accounts. As I have said once you should NOT use the same password for everything because criminals can try it on various websites and check if they are able to open the lock.
Check http://haveibeenpwned.com and search how exposed your email and password have been. As a general rule, you have to protect accounts with a double factor of authentication and have strong and separate passwords for each service.
What to do if your online account has been hacked on Twitter
If you think you’ve been hacked and can’t log in with your username and password, perform the following two steps:
1. Request to reset the password
Request an email from the password reset form to create a new one. Try entering your username and email address, and be sure to check if you’ve been sent the password reset message to the address associated with your Twitter account.
If you can sign in after resetting your password, the next step is to check if your account’s security has been compromised and secure it again.
2. If it stays the same, write to Twitter support
If you still can’t sign in, contact Twitter by sending a Support Request. Be sure to use the email address associated with this hacked Twitter account. After checks by Twitter they send you additional information and instructions to that address.
How to recover your hacked online account on Facebook
Your social media account should represent you and only you have to have access to it. Facebook offers help in case someone manages to access your account or if you think someone is impersonate you or someone else.
Try interactive help
Facebook has an interactive help that can tell you the steps to follow to solve your problem. If you believe someone has taken control of your account or hacked it, you should visit this page to protect your account. It will ask you to change your password and review your recent login activity.
Clues that may make you think they have hacked could be:
- Your email address or password has been changed.
- Change your name or birthday.
- There are friend requests to people you don’t know.
- They’ve sent messages that you haven’t written.
- There are posts that you haven’t published on your profile.
You can also check out these tools and tips for protecting your account that come in Facebook’s help.
Recover your Instagram online account
If you believe that someone has taken control of your Instagram account or has been hacked, you can take several steps to protect it. You may not have some of the following recovery steps available. It will depend on the type of account you are trying to recover.
Check your email
If you’ve received an email from security@mail.instagram.com telling you that your email address has been changed, you may be able to undo this change by selecting to cancel the change in that message. If other information (e.g., password) has changed and you can’t change your email address again, you need to ask Instagram to send you an access link or security code.
Request an access link to Instagram
To confirm that an account belongs to you, you can request that Instagram send you an access link to your email address or phone number.
To request an access link:
- On the sign-in screen, tap Get Help. (Android) or Forgot password? (iPhone).
- Enter your user name, email address, or phone number associated with your account, and then tap Next.
- Select your email address or phone number, and then tap Send access link.
- Click the access link in your email or text message (SMS) and follow the on-screen instructions.
Request a security code or help from Instagram
If you can’t recover your account with the access link sent to you by Instagram, you can ask Instagram for help.
Summary
The security of our digital selves is very important today. There are many people out there who try various ways to get our data. An online account is always susceptible to being breached because until the system is changed, an email and password are still required to access a web page.
In this article we have discussed various ways to recover accounts that have been hacked online. If it has happened to you I hope it helps you to know that you have to take extreme precautions and always be aware of all the details and ignore messages sent by people you do not know or that you know but that your privacy has been violated.
References
- https://www.facebook.com/help/1216349518398524
- https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/spanish
- https://www.osi.es/es/reporte-de-fraude
- https://help.twitter.com/es/safety-and-security/twitter-account-hacked
- https://help.instagram.com/149494825257596
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