Well, I’ve been hacked! Woke up early this morning, sat at my desk to get some work done, answered a few blog comments – then suddenly couldn’t get in my email. Usual passwords wouldn’t sign me in.
Fixed it pretty quickly, but it’s a creepy feeling. Someone sneaky had gotten into my email – and for what purpose?
Then I saw the mass email they’d sent out to say I was stranded in Cyprus without my bag! If you replied back, the next email told you that I needed 1200 Euros sent to me via Western Union right away.
Oh brother. Well, at least it was not a personal hack because of my work as an LGBTQ ally, which was my initial thought.
In this day and age, I want to think most people won’t fall for that kind of email. But it’s still a very effective tactic, so here’s how it works.
- You receives an email from the address of someone you know, saying that person is in trouble and needs help.
- The hackers set it up to forward all of my email to a different email, similar to mine – a yahoo account they set up – so those who answer are actually answering the hackers.
- The hackers export my entire contact list to that different email account, so they can continue to send emails from it long after I have corrected my real email.
- The recipient replies to the initial email, asking if I’m really in trouble, and the hacker responds as if they are the stranded friend – and tells them where to send money.
- Well, now that that the recipient is “talking” (via email) to the stranded friend, there is a much better chance they will send money.
- The hacker supplies them with info on where to wire money – untraceable to the hacker and of course unreturnable.
- If it works only a small amount of the time, it makes the hackers a lot of money.
My husband quickly calculated the numbers: let’s say the hacker sends out 10,000 emails, asks for $2000, and 1% send that money. The thieves make $200,000. Wow. Only a small percentage of compliance will make this scam pay off.
Some caring friends emailed me back to say, “You’ve been hacked.” But those who responded before I fixed the account, I never even saw. (It was actually amazing that I discovered it only about a half hour after the hack, and it was only because I was up earlier than usual.)
Some said, “Have you been hacked?” A few said, “Sorry I can’t help you,” or “Why don’t you ask your husband or family to help?” or “I haven’t known you that long” – as though they were actually talking to me.
It was a little unnerving. How can people believe this was really me?
I think it’s an interesting dynamic that happens.
All the relationship between the “stranded friend” and the recipient comes along with the email – all the credibility, goodwill and friendship. This increases the chances of the scam working and the recipient sending money. The only way to avoid being pulled in, at least to being concerned about your stranded friend, is to question the source. You’ve got to dig deeper, investigate and say, “Is this really from my beloved friend/family member or not? Let me check the accuracy of the email addresses? Does this sound like them? Are they really in Cyprus?” One friend said, “I wondered if it was you, but it didn’t sound as warm and personable as you usually sound.”
The identity of the speaker is key because: 1. If it’s my friend I care about, I want at least to express concern and help as appropriate, and 2. If it’s not my friend, I want nothing to do with it.
That’s the key distinction. You must consider the source.
Okay, here comes the punchline…
Be wary when somebody tells you what God thinks. Even if something is “in the Bible,” don’t take it at face value. We are told God thinks a lot of things, many of them seem contrary, many of them in the Bible are contrary – and many of them appear to go against the character we see lived out through Jesus (whom those who “speak for God” claim to follow.)
Jesus confirmed this when the Pharisees confronted him with Scripture and he responded with “You read this, but I tell you this.”
Don’t forget you can talk to God directly. The Spirit is in you.
Some of the hack-recipients Facebook messaged or texted me to double-check that this was a hack. You feel better when you confirm with the person that they did not really send that strange email (even if you don’t think it’s possible they did).
Talk to God for yourself.
Ask yourself whether a God of Love would do and require what people are telling you that God requires you to do.
If it is something mean and judgmental and condemning and even horrific, does that line up with a God of unconditional love and grace? Does that line up with a Jesus who always put people first? Listen to the heart of God for yourself.
That’s what is happening in so many churches and in the culture that has been changing and growing and making so much movement.
- Parents hear God tell them directly to unconditionally love, accept and affirm their LGBTQ child.
- LGBTQ people themselves hear God say that they are exactly as God made them.
- Friends, youth, pastors know for sure that God is not asking us to do to LGBTQ people what we have been doing.
Think it through.
Begin to separate from what a religious “hacker” may have told you about God.
Please. Time is short. Lives are at stake.
Susan
p.s. And thank you for all your concern for me! 🙂
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