I recently bought something on Amazon that seemed a bit sketchy. A day or two later, I found out someone hacked my Amazon account and used it to buy a bunch of Xbox gift cards. They also got into my Steam account, spent my points, sold my trading cards, and used the money on random things like emotes.
I ran Windows malware scans on my PC and changed all my passwords (PC, laptop, Amazon, bank, Steam, etc.). I also contacted Amazon, Steam, and my bank. Amazon and Steam said they’d refund most of the losses, and my bank promised to cover everything.
The issue is I’ve always used one password for everything. I know it’s a bad idea, but I thought only really inexperienced people got scammed like this. Now my LinkedIn account has been accessed too, and I’m scrambling to change passwords on every platform I’ve ever used.
Does anyone know how they might’ve gotten my info? I don’t share my PC or account details with anyone. LinkedIn says my account was accessed from Hilo, Hawaii. Could it be a VPN? Also, any tips on staying safe going forward?
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Lots of sites get hacked, and leaked data can include emails and passwords. If you use the same password for everything, they just try it everywhere until it works.
You should check out https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to see if your info has been in any breaches. Also, be careful about malware or keyloggers. You could’ve picked up something shady from a bad site or download.
Data breaches are super common. If you’re using the same password everywhere, one breach puts all your accounts at risk. That’s probably how they got in.
Using one password for everything is like giving hackers an all-access pass. Check https://haveibeenpwned.com/. Your password might’ve been leaked in a breach and reused by bots or scripts to get into other accounts.
Reusing the same password is a big mistake. If one account gets compromised in a breach, hackers can test that password across other sites. They don’t even need to unhash every password in a dump since lots of them already match usernames and known hashes. It’s a huge security risk. Start using unique passwords now!
This doesn’t sound like a scam, more like your details were leaked in a breach and sold. What’s your end goal here? Cops probably won’t track them down, so focus on protecting yourself going forward.
Something similar happened to me. My bank refused to refund me, claiming I gave out my info. I filed a police report, but I’m still out of my money. Hopefully, your situation turns out better than mine.