Clicks, hacks, and losses.

Click and get hacked, but there’s no way anyone will know this until they actually clicked, enter their details, and then puuuuuufffff, everything starts spiraling into what they never bargained for.

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We were on a two-hour trip when an elderly man sitting right in front of me kept receiving calls from his loved ones. “Hello, Chief. What do you need that huge amount of money for? You asked me to lend you the sum of five million naira. What is it for?” The confused chief was there, his mouth wide open asking how because he never made such a request.

If he would borrow money, according to him, he would’ve borrowed way beyond the said amount, moreover, he didn’t have any pending project to spend money on at that moment, so, there was no reason he would request such amount from anyone.

While he was explaining to no one in particular, his phone rang again, and this time, the caller asked what he needed five thousand naira that was that urgent. Again, he was surprised. What could be wrong? Who was making such absurd requests from his people? “Errmmm, sir, can I see your WhatsApp sir?” I asked. He gave me his phone and I tried to open the app, but his account was already logged out. That means that his WhatsApp account was hacked, and the hacker was using his account to message his people and request money.

The journey was a two-hour journey and all I tried to do during that period was trying to get his account back from the hacker. I tried to call some of my friends that could help, and we got the problem solved before getting to the destination, however, we tried getting the details of the hacker before regaining the account. How? We instructed the people the hacker messaged to send the account details where the money would be deposited.

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During the two hours journey, the elderly man was confused, trying to remember how his account got hacked, however, we can’t be too careful. He was sweating so profusely because on his phone, he had contacts of big men and companies he was trying to seal many deals with, so he was scared that the hacker would deal him a huge blow if he messaged those people for money. Just how would they be seeing him?

Also, he had many private messages he wouldn’t want anyone to see. It was supposed to be confidential. It wasn’t a good sight to behold seeing a well-dressed elderly man sweating profusely just for clicking a link.

While I was trying to find a solution to the problem, I asked him a series of questions. I am not a cybersecurity expert, but with the information online, I asked him if he clicked any link in the past days, and in his words, “there are many information they share with him daily including daily news, and information relating to his works. So, he had probably clicked one that he shouldn’t have, and the hacker was well positioned to take action immediately he submitted his details to gain access to the site to read the information that made him click in the first place”.

Getting my accounts hacked is one nightmare I really do not pray to experience. One of my friends got his bank account wiped clean overnight, and till date, we’ve neither gotten a message from the police officers nor from the bank for a way to get the money back. Even though it wasn’t my money, I felt the pain with him because the amount was a huge sum.

With the few experiences I've had with these hackers and cyber fraudsters, I've learnt that one can't be too careful. However, the losses attached will still make us keep trying to be careful nonetheless.

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