~D~'s Final Blog
So for my final blog in this class I wanted to discuss the negative aspects of Digital Culture. Recently My friend started asking all of us for money to fly to Vegas to support his poker habit via facebook and AIM(AOL Instant Messenger). I said no and was pretty pissed that this was the first conversation I had with this kid in over two years. No more that a week later my AIM account was hacked. I received notifications that I changed my password via my blackberry but since I haven't used AIM in years I figured it had something to do with the recent closing of AOL Pictures. The next morning I awoke to a ton of text messages saying my account was hacked or if I really needed money I should have just asked over the phone or in person. Needless to say I was a little upset!
I began to search for ways to reset my password but the hacker change the e-mail on the account and the security question so I had no way of recovering it. When they would approach my friends online, they used my status updates and information from my facebook profile to approach my friends as me. My friend that goes to LSU(I know, I know, sometimes we can't help who are friends are) actually fail for the scam(probably because he goes to LSU) and had to file a police report to start trying to recover the money and banking information he gave away to the hacker.
At this point I began to try to contact AOL and if you know anything about AOL's customer service you know it pretty much doesn't exist. They only provide live person to person assistance if you have an account that you pay for. This means that everyone who has free AIM account cannot receive live assistance when a problem arises. I sat on the phone for over 30 minutes just to get to the message that explained all of this to me!
Think about the ramifications of this: My friends are getting scammed by a hacker, I can't shut down the account to prevent this so my name is being drug in the mud, and right now someone is running around with my "virtual identity". Just somethings to ponder as we enter our last day discussing the foundations of digital culture.
~D~
I began to search for ways to reset my password but the hacker change the e-mail on the account and the security question so I had no way of recovering it. When they would approach my friends online, they used my status updates and information from my facebook profile to approach my friends as me. My friend that goes to LSU(I know, I know, sometimes we can't help who are friends are) actually fail for the scam(probably because he goes to LSU) and had to file a police report to start trying to recover the money and banking information he gave away to the hacker.
At this point I began to try to contact AOL and if you know anything about AOL's customer service you know it pretty much doesn't exist. They only provide live person to person assistance if you have an account that you pay for. This means that everyone who has free AIM account cannot receive live assistance when a problem arises. I sat on the phone for over 30 minutes just to get to the message that explained all of this to me!
Think about the ramifications of this: My friends are getting scammed by a hacker, I can't shut down the account to prevent this so my name is being drug in the mud, and right now someone is running around with my "virtual identity". Just somethings to ponder as we enter our last day discussing the foundations of digital culture.
~D~
That is HORRIBLE and I definitely feel for you. I wouldn't be able to imagine what I would do if someone hacked into my Facebook. One thing about digital culture is that we have become so dependent on technology that if anything happens to it, it falls down on us completely. I wish you best of luck with your situation. Hopefully everything works out!
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