14 DAY TRIAL // The email, Facebook, Skype and Trade Me accounts of Lisa Tamati, the renowned adventure athlete from New Zealand, have been hacked by cybercriminals presumably based in Nigeria. Once they gained access to the accounts, the hackers changed the passwords to lock her out.
The athlete has come forward with her story to warn others about the threats that lurk all over the Web.
Last year, scammers managed to steal $10,000 (€7,600) from her bank account. Now, hackers have compromised her online accounts and they’re trying to make the best of it, Stuff.co.nz reports.
According to Tamati, the cybercrooks have started sending out emails to her contacts claiming that the athlete is in Florida and that she’s been beaten up. The scammers urge the recipients of these messages to send money.
“I've also been to the police but they can't do anything. It seems nobody can help me. I'm at a complete loss. It's identity theft and it's embarrassing to have my entire database spammed,” Tamati said.
The athlete says she doesn’t know how her online accounts got hacked.
There are several possibilities as to how this might have happened. It’s possible that she used the same password for all online accounts. It was enough for the hackers to gain access to one password.
This is a mistake many Internet users make. That’s why experts always recommend different passwords for each online account.
If it’s too difficult to remember them, the use of a password manager is recommended.
It’s also possible that the attackers hijacked her email account and used it to reset the passwords for the other accounts. It’s not uncommon for people to utilize the same email account when signing up on other websites.
Whichever the case may be, Tamati has probably learned her lesson. And, hopefully, the incident will raise awareness of the importance of online security.