I Was Hacked This Weekend
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- Опубліковано 31 лип 2024
- Did you notice some odd things happening to the UA-cam channel this weekend? My personal Google account--and this channel--were hacked. This is the full story.
Related article: stonemaiergames.com/i-was-hac... - Ігри
The worst thing about this sort of situation is that people often feel foolish, for falling for the scam. It’s important to remember that these are incredibly sophisticated con artists.
We will all fall foul of these disappointing humans at some point.
My Nan used to say, ‘you’ll never meet a con man you didn’t like’.
Hope everything works out ok for you.
I like that saying. I think I am one of the rare people who is repulsed by overly charismatic people lol….if you meet enough sociopaths in real life, you start to get a nose for sniffing them out.
It can be a trauma. You blame yourself, feel violated and a loss of control. Like with many crises, the key is to stay calm, accept the things you cannot change, change the things you can, and know that you can rebuild and get past it.
Hey Jamie, don’t be too hard on yourself. Nobody is immune to this kind of stuff. Thank you for the video + good vibes & greetings from Belgium.
Brutal.
There's a concept in philosophy called "extended mind" which is the idea that our minds are instantiated not just in our heads but are extended out on pieces of paper, in calculators, and on google documents. Our technologies and the ability to interact with those technologies allow us to "offload" so much of our memory and processing demands, making human beings capable of doing so much more than we otherwise could. But I guess the flip side of that is that we become vulnerable when bits of our extended minds are destroyed or violated in this way. Our emails or our lists of things to do or our research on projects we are working with are parts of us. I'm glad you got those parts back, but those hours, and the lingering uncertainties about what might happen in the future, that is a real injury.
I appreciate the way you phrased this, Steven, and this weekend I felt all too closely what it may be like to have part of that extended mind removed.
Woah that's deep! You are right though I do feel very vulnerable all of a sudden...
I felt similar to this last year when I accidentally drowned my phone that wasn't backed up...and that was my fault (there were circumstances, but ultimately just pure oversight on my part)...and it sucked.
Worrying about someone doing this maliciously, and worrying about might have been lost or used maliciously later would be that much worse. Traumatic really.
I'm sorry this happened, and appreciate you sharing...both to caution us, let us know what the process was so that we have a bit of a guide about what to do in a similar situation.
Hopefully, it is as contained as it sounds like it was and that is it.
Thanks for being good people.❤
@@OscarD.G. I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm not entirely sure if my full iPhone is backed up. I'll look into that. I'm sorry that happened to you!
I haven't heard of this before but it is quite interesting at so many levels. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing - I appreciate the openness with which you present this channel and all your work. Glad it wasn't worse!
Thank you so much for sharing this. It’s stirred up a ton of thoughts on readiness for something like this in my own accounts. Really appreciate it. So sorry it happened to you.
Thanks for posting this! It was a wakeup call for myself and I realized I had some major holes in my personal security. A lot of the times it can be too stressful to think about so you just ignore potential problems.
Thank You for sharing this story. Glad that you were able to recover from it without much damage.
Oh man, I am so sorry for you! How upsetting and violating! Thanks for bringing this up.
Thank you for sharing and I'm sorry you had to go through this. Let's hope your story helps prevent someone from going through the same.
I appreciate that you shared this. Its good to know how transparent you are. I hope this gets easier each morning.
Thank you for sharing your story! I'm so sorry this happened to you. ❤️
Thank you for sharing your experience with this, I’m sorry it happened to you. It sounds awful and is a good wake up call to update my security info. I unsubbed when it was another channel, but only took a couple days to realize what it was and resubbed
Wow! So sorry to hear you had to deal with this. It still makes no sense to me that people enjoy causing disruption and frustration for others. I'm glad the damage was reasonably minimal, but it obviously did cause a lot of work and stress. Thank you for sharing the lessons learned!
Thank you for being open about this Jamie! I'm in IT and this is a great reminder to *everyone* that hackers are getting incredibly sophisticated using targeted attacks and AI tools to have realistic conversations. Even if you are smart, savvy, and aware you can still have moments of falling into a well placed trap.
Happy to hear you were able to get back in control! Thanks for sharing with us 😊
I'm so sorry to hear about your negative experience. Thank you for using your experience to enlighten others.
Wow. As you told the story, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. I hate that you had to deal with that most of your weekend. It sounded like the hackers wanted a free form of advertising. I hope all is well moving forward. Thanks for sharing. Will
Sorry to hear that you went through all that! It's sad that there are so many people in the world who think that scamming innocent people is actually a good idea in any way. Luckily, there are far more good people, such as yourself and the Stonemaier Games community.
So sorry this happened to you - and appreciate you sharing!!
So sorry this happened to you, but THANK YOU for sharing (and in such detail, with such transparency). My husband (who was the one who showed me your video) has been nagging me to set up 2FA security everywhere etc and I've been dismissing it as too much of a hassle. Your video was a much-needed wake-up call.
Thank you, Debbie. I hope adding 2FA (and strong recovery options) helps to make your accounts more secure.
I’m sorry to hear this happened to you Jamey. That’s really terrible and I’m sure it caused some anxiety. Some hackers are really good at what they do and can disguise things really well. I just got a few attempts though my work as well that looked perfectly legit until you inspected closer.
I'm glad you caught those attempts!
I was right in the middle of watching one of your videos on Sunday evening and UA-cam pulled plug on the channel, I was so worried this channel I recently found and enjoy got messed with.
Very happy for you that you got it back with, in the grand scheme of things, little damage, and so quickly too. Happy for me I still get to watch this backlog of all your videos hehe'
Oh no! Feeling anxious just listening to your story. 😞 Thanks for sharing! Hope all goes well! Hackers, like cancer, suck!
I feel sorry for your situation Jamie, hope you you recover from it with the least amount of damage soon!
Thanks for sharing this, Jamie. Sending lots of love - and to the worst of it being behind you!
Here's to a new year of comments headed your way.
All the best, Jamey. Sounds like a lot of struggle. Glad that it has mostly worked out.
Sorry you had to go through that. As always you are a pioneer in this industry.
Thanks for sharing your story. Eye opener to update passwords and authentication options!
Glad you are back up and in control. Love your informational channel.
Glad to see you got it back. Sounds like a terrible weekend, but could have definitely been worse as you stated. Keep on doing what you do!
Glad for the less-than-disastrous resolution of this. Hope you can shake off the stress of it before too long. I can only imagine how trying it's been and that stuff tends to linger. Be well, and thanks as always for your videos.
Sorry to hear this, Jamey, it must have been so stressful thinking you'd lost all that work and content, I'm glad you were able to recover most of it. It's sad to think that anybody would commit these actions against hard working people.
Thank you for you unwavering positivity in sharing this, and helping others avoid a similar situation.
Thank you Jaime for sharing! Just another good reminder for everyone about how easy it is to lose so much due to an impulsive click. Keep up the great work!
This was super insightful and helpful for sure. Appreciate you sharing in what was a very invasive and terrible experience.
I'm super happy you get everything back and appreciate the heads up on how to protect our accounts.
I’m very glad you were able to recover your account! Thanks for sharing your story, made me wonder about the level of protection I have from being hacked.
sorry this happened to you - it's good of you to share it for others to learn from what you went through
So sorry this happened to you. Thank you for sharing all of your insight around this issue. It will be very helpful for many of us. (And I stayed subscribed throughout because I figured you'd be back sooner rather than later. Welcome back!)
Thanks James! :)
Ahh Jamie, this is awful. Gald you managed to get it all sorted. I can understand your reasoning for trusting who you were dealing with. We have to be very careful in my line of work so i am always extra vigilant and dont really trust anything unless I am 100 percent certain. Sadly this is the world we live in and nobody is safe. All the best!
Looking forward to a hacker themed board game from Stonemaier soon! Maybe a hidden movement mechanism?
Shut up and take my money!
great idea
Sorry to hear you had this happen, and glad to hear you were able to recover most everything relatively quickly.
Good on you for being open about this experience. Sharing it is a service to the community, which is very much on brand. Thank you for all that you do.
Thank you! I'm sorry it was such a long video--I appreciate the opportunity to process and share it here.
Thank you for sharing this important information with us. You have given us loads of things to think about to better our situation. Hats off to you, and good luck going forward.
Thank you!
Sorry you had to experience that. I'm glad you got it resolved!
Thank you for sharing your experience Jamey.
Wow, glad you are still here. What a story. Wish they could catch this person.
So sorry to hear that happened--I can only imagine how you must have felt (and still do) at that violation. Glad to hear it's at least on the pathway to positive resolution without outsized ill effects for you.
Thank you--I appreciate that.
Jamie thank you for sharing your experience! It's amazing all of the potential for destruction someone can get with access to someone's personal email address. I'm so thankful all they did was use your UA-cam as a front for a business, and not even delete, but just change privacy settings for existing videos. Glad you were able to recover so (relatively) quickly! Cheers!
I'm very thankful for that too.
Thank you for sharing this. It makes people more knowledgeable and less susceptible to breaches.
Thank you for the honesty. Had a similar, albeit physical experience with my boardgame bazaar where someone used my comfort to get into my storage and steal.
Hope the breach won't have any more impact and you managed to tie all the loose ends.
I'm really sorry that something similar happened to you.
Thank you for sharing. Great that you are recovering from it.
Sorry Jamie! Hackers are the worst... Hopefully you fix it quickly. We are very hyped about that open world that you mentioned! Big hug!
Glad you got this resolved. Sucks that there are people out there doing this sort of thing. It is so easy to be tricked/trapped by their methods. Fortunate you got everything worked out now, for the most part.
So glad to hear that the end result was more of a lesson than devastation and thank you for sharing with us.
Also, I was one that unsubscribed (unknowingly because the name showed different), but re-subscibed now.
Me too. Thanks for returning!
Thank you for sharing your experience, but sorry you had to go through it. You provided really helpful insight for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation... seems inevitable in today's tecnological world. Also, very sorry to hear about Biddy❤
Thank you, Megan. Biddy lives on in many Easter eggs in our games. :) stonemaiergames.com/all-easter-eggs-of-biddy-and-why-they-matter/
@@jameystegmaier Such a beautiful tribute! Please keep including him (and Walter, too) and he will always be with us.
Jamey, I'm so very sorry. The feeling is utter dread when it washes over you that something like this happens. I'm glad it ended well, and please be careful.
"Dread" is a good way to put it--I definitely felt that way!
Hey Jamie, you are an inspiration for a lot of people. You know that, right? Some time ago, when I was trying my way into the boardgames industry, your videos and all you have accomplished was very helpfull and something to go for! So, you already help people a lot! Thank you for this alert video and for all things you've been sharing on this channel! I hope you feel better now that the storm has passed!
That means a lot--thank you for saying that, and I'm glad these videos are helpful for you. :)
@@jameystegmaier They are indeed! I'm not into boardgame design anymore, but still enjoy your content because I feel that you share expecting nothing in return. And this is a rare thing, man! And obviously, I love the games you guys make! Keep up! Cheers!
Glad you were able to get your accounts back relatively quickly!
Thank you for making this video! One of the main reasons scammers can be so effective is that their victims are too ashamed to admit what happened. As hard as it can be, discussing these things educates us all and builds up a sort of "herd immunity" against bad actors.
Good word of warning. Thanks for taking the time to share this. I work for a mid-west tech company and we have to do security training and even have fake phishing attempt emails sent to us regularly as tests. It's annoying, but it's good practice. Like you said a little preventative effort is totally worth it. If your interested in more online security I can share more info, but not trying to sell you on anything. I work in the graphic design/video department so it's all way over my head.
P.S. Light No Fire does look intriguing. I'm eager to see more trailers.
Thanks Justin! I'm absolutely open to any tips, advice, and recommendations.
Jamie, it's been hard to watch this video, as I've been in a very similar situation. My gmail account has been hacked some years ago and unfortunately I couldn't get back into it. I can definitely see that I talked about it the same way you do. I could not realise how much of my personal life was there, and felt like disappearing, while I had to deal with closing credit cards and other things. The emotional impact was strong, and it also feels like someone is violating your very private space.
I'm happy that you got the emotional support you needed.
I'm so sorry that happened to you and that you couldn't recover it. It's a huge violation and loss.
Good Morning Jamie. Sorry this happened to you. The scamming the past 4 years are not so easy to detect (because people have made it their career). Sad that this is the opportunity they use for their skills anongst the good they could do. Makes you wonder how many people are falling through the cracks. Thank you for sharing.. i willl watch and see how i can improve my security stance.
always appreciate your perspective and efforts to "help all boats rise with the tide" as you learn lessons and share your experiences.
Thank you!
I'm truly sorry that you're going through this. Like you, I rely heavily on Gmail and Google Drive. I can empathize with how awful this situation must be for you.
Thank you. :)
Sounds like a mini vacation is well earned after that stressful of weekend! Glad everything is back under control for the most part, and appreciate the continued content! 🎉❤
I had a nice long disc golf outing on Sunday--it really helped. I wish I had the time back from Saturday, though, as I was on the computer for 10+ hours nonstop.
@@jameystegmaier Hell yeah. Love me some disc golf! A perfect break from screen time (especially the stressful kind). Gotta get out there myself as it warms up.
Sorry to hear this! Had this happen years ago. Nothing like a hack to make you a security expert! 😅
Thanks for sharing and glad it was resolved. Crazy that they did this through 2 factor authentication
Thank you for sharing. This was helpful for me personally.
I have immense respect for you sharing this story with us. It's easy for people to rush to judgment, but with the increasing complexity of cyberattacks amidst vast communication channels, spotting them has become challenging. These moments are opportunities for learning and self-reflection, reminding us not to be too harsh on ourselves, as making mistakes is an inherent part of being human.
I appreciate you saying that, as there's definitely a certain amount of embarassment that comes with falling for a trap like this. I'm glad for the opportunity to share it with others so they can avoid the same trap.
So sorry this happened Jamey! I had no idea this happened. Always scary and something that will stick with you for quite a while. I had a similar scare when I was in college with my college email.
I'm sorry this happened to you too, Aaron.
So sorry to hear that. It totally sucks!
Sorry to hear this Jamey 🫂 Great to hear you were able to sort things out quite quickly ❤
Jamey, I’m glad your situation was sorted out. You are absolutely not the only person I follow that this has happened to, I know of at least one other large (video) gaming channel and two decently large reach Twitter accounts this exact situation happened to. From what I know after they were hacked, it sounds like you’ve taken the steps to keep everything protected.
I also know the fear this can instill. Our car was stolen last year, and in it were and with it one of our credit cards and our checkbook. We had to lock everything down, we changed accounts, passwords, everything we could think of, just out of fear that our accounts could have been hacked.
I hope everything is clear from here on out, and just know if something does happen, the Stonemaier fan base has your back.
Thank you for relating to this, though I'm really sorry you went through a type of invasion of privacy and theft as well.
@@jameystegmaier it’s not exactly the same, because through insurance I replaced the car and through the kindness of strangers I replaced the other belongings. I do understand that violating feeling. You will have that for a while, but just know we are all here to support you in whatever way we can!
It’s admirable how willing you are to always share your knowledge and experience to the benefit of others. I’m sorry about you having to go through this, and glad that you’ve managed to mitigate significant risk. Hats off to you and respect for the kind and caring human you are, as evidenced by the kind way you speak of everyone who helped and even the hacker 😅 Glad you got the right people supporting you! Also, Walter is now your favourite cat, by default, but it counts 😂
Thank you! That's very kind of you to say, and you're right, Walter is now my favorite cat. He's a good boy. :)
Thanks for sharing. Sorry that happened to you.
Wow, that's absolutely terrifying. So glad you were able to recover most stuff. I don't know I could have been that calm in the same situation.
It was kind of a chilling mix of calm and panicked. :)
Thank you for a solid reminder to review security on key accounts.
Man, I am really sorry to hear that you fell victim to an elaborate scam like this, and had to go through all of that stress. I sincerely hope that nothing happened beyond what you noticed so far.
Thanks, though, for talking about your experience so openly. I'll be off now, updating some security settings 😅
Thank you! I hope it's the end of the situation, but I'll be vigilant.
So sorry this happened Jamey. It's a huge eye opener on how terrible people in this world can be. I recently fell victim to a scam, and like your situation, it seemed to be legit. It's a good reminder to be more and more vigilant about security. I hope you can put this behind you soon.
I'm so sorry you were the victim of a scan too, Chad. How are you doing?
@@jameystegmaier Oh, I will be paying off my mistake for a while, 🙄but it made me even more careful while dealing with clients. It's tough being a freelancer when Scammers are getting more and more convincing. Thanks for asking.
@@chadstilson8804 That's rough. I'm so sorry!
@@jameystegmaier Thanks. I chalk it up as the price of Freelancing during these times. Just gotta move forward. :)
Thanks for sharing. Very educational. Happy that everything is good now.
So far everying looks good, and I hope that continues. :)
First of all, I'm so sorry that happened to you. I can only imagine how vulnerable you felt. I work in IT and would love to use what happened to you as an example of "you do almost everything right and you still can be hacked." You had most of the security features that are suggested in place. AI is changing how security can be infiltrated. Before AI you could count on obvious grammatical errors and spelling but now it's very hard to distinguish between a real and phishing email. I'm so glad you were able to get everything back.
Thank you, Donna. While I feel like I could have done a lot more the right way, you're right that I had a number of measures in place and it still wasn't enough. You can definitely use me as an example! :)
THank you for sharing your story.
I’m sorry this happened to you. When I went on UA-cam on Saturday I saw a subscription to this random channel and I quickly unsubscribed. Little did I know I was actually unsubscribing to you. I have since rejoined. I hope others who may also did what I did come back too. Thanks as always for all you do and best wishes in this rough stretch.
Thanks! I would have done the same thing.
Hi Jamey, Sorry to hear all the trouble you were in (and the lost of your weekend). Good to have you back!
I also unsubbed, and wondered when I signed up for a crypto channel, but I now resubbed. Glad to be back. 😅❤🎉
Thnx for sharing and good luck!
Same here. I was equally confused as to why I wasn't subbed when this video popped up, but now it all makes sense. Re-subscribed!
Thanks for coming back. :)
Glad you were able to get everything back, quite quickly in hindsight as well. Such a weird set of things that they did for sure.
Thank you for leaving the kitty videos public. They were super cute!
Thanks for just raising some awareness about how convincing these scams are becoming.
I noticed soon after this video began that I wasn't subscribed. I pretty sure I unsubbed when I saw the hacker's uploads without noticing it was your channel. This happens to me about once a month- perhaps other channels I'm subscribed to are getting hacked as well. Of course, I'm subbed again.
Either way I'm so happy you recovered quickly. I'm dusting off my external hardrive and backing up my Google Drive tonight!
Thank you! Great idea to back up your drive. :)
Hi Jamey, that's terrible! Glad to hear you were able to recover. I am sure you've probably already check for this, but one more backdoor to look for is in connected apps (as well as devices) as they could have changed your settings to allow "access from less secure apps" and connected an app to your account to keep access.
That's a great tip. I'll disconnect anything like that.
@@jameystegmaier Sorry for spelling your name incorrectly! Realised my mistake when I got the April newsletter. Fixed it. :D
I'm lucky I stumbled on this video. I saw one of those videos and asked myself when I subscribed to that. I proceeded to unsubscribed. I remember checking the number of subscribers of that channel and I now see it was your channel! Happy to resubscribe! Hope all will be well for you going forward.
Thank you! I'm sorry for the hassle.
Thanks for sharing this helpful info, Jamey. Hopefully you also have protocols in place in case of your sudden death or incapacitation (just something I think about as a paramedic!).
That's a great thought! I'm pretty cautious about that sort of thing--I set up a living well and full estate planning around 10 years ago, and we have a "hit by a bus" plan in place at Stonemaier Games.
Jamey, sorry you had this happen to you and it is obvious how much this stressed you out from the way you recounted this story. Hopefully everything continues to stay secured and you are able to move on without any further damages to report. That said, If you haven't looked into it already I'd be worried about the file you downloaded possibly leaving your computer vulnerable. With ways to remotely view or log your keystrokes just be careful that your computer isn't still vulnerable. Anti-virus/spyware programs normally help but also having somebody look at the processes running in the background of your computer can help to double and triple check this.
I appreciate the words of caution. I've run two full virus scans using differnet software, but you're right that I'm still not 100% sure.
glad you have your yt channel back. i hope you didn't lost subs with the video spam the hacker did. I just noticed a spam of really old yt videos.
We lost around 1000 subscribers. The old videos were previously listed as private, but the hacker changed all videos to private (in bulk), so I changed them all to public and then selected the videos that should actually be private. Somehow this pulled some older videos up on the list as if they were recently released.
Sorry to hear that, you have a tremendously dignified attitude, it's really ugly that your kind intent and consideration was used for nefarious purposes. Good that things seem back to normal.
Thank you!
I'm so sorry. this happened!
Total bummer. I hope it never happens to me!
Sorry to hear about the stressful weekend!
This is the second large UA-camr I watch that was hacked in the last week. The Normies reaction channel also got hacked. All videos made private and cryptocurrency videos uploaded. As soon as I heard you mentioned the private videos I was like… “wait this sounds really familiar.” So strange the way this took place.
Hope your week is a lot more uneventful.
Edit: Sorry to hear about the loss of your cat. 🐈 😢
Thank you for sharing this. It's saddening to hear that this has happened to so many other channels too.
@@jameystegmaier Agreed. I’m assuming whoever is doing this is targeting channels over a certain size. Glad you got it under control!
There are a couple tools you can use to download all your emails from your Gmail. As a full time IT dude, I regularly preach the virtue of back up, back up download and backup. It's never a case of if this will happen, it's only when. Glad you got back up and running so quickly.
I'll look into those tools--thank you! I have Backblaze for files, but I don't think it backs up my email. Fortunately, my emails are all in two places (gmail and Outlook), but even more redundancy is good too.
It's scary how horrible things happen with little mistakes. Social engineering stacks are rough because it's hard to always stay vigilant.
This same thing happened to Corridor Crew last year, right down to the crypto livestream thing. So bizarre. So sorry that happened, and hopefully you’re totally in the clear now
That's terrible. Hopefully these types of videos can help other creators avoid the same fate.
Hey Jaimie! I love your work and what you bring to the community. Regarding this, thanks for sharing your experience. Some people that's not really into technology may believe that hacking is complex and and technical, but the truth is that almost all hacking is really on humans. They don't break into your accounts like lockpicking... they deceive people and make them give the information or allow them into their system.
If they target youtube accounts, maybe it could have something to do with monetization or something.. I really don't know. But I'm glad all this turned out fine in the end. And we can all be victims from these people, this is what they do, and one tries not to be so cynical about everything and have good faith. I went through something similar some years ago, and I was as suspicious as anyone but still fell for it.
Again, thanks for sharing and alerting in case some people don't know how to deal with these situations or how they unfold. Cheers from Argentina!
Thank you for sharing this, and I'm sorry a hacker/scammer got you too. I hope you're okay!