Opinion : How a simple, "How are you doing?" tells me that you've been hacked

It seems like in my world, where most of my day, and night, is spent online, I find more and more people are being hacked.

Sometimes I'll tell you about it, and sometimes I'm so busy, I just ignore it.

It happened again this week.

I had a Facebook message from someone I had just talked to on Sunday. It was a simple private message that said, "How are you doing?"

I knew that it wasn't my friend. How did I know that? Because we never chat on Facebook.

She's old school and honestly, we just like to talk in person.

So knowing that this was unlikely her, I had a couple of options. 1) ignore it. 2) Reply and have some fun with a hacker or 3) call and tell her.

My favorite, when I'm all caught up with my work and not fighting with my equipment, is to respond with a "Great how are you?" and I know that my "friend" will tell me some sob story about how they are traveling outside the country and they were mugged or lost their luggage, or they had a car accident or some crazy event that in normal people would set off all kinds of sympathetic responses.

When someone tells me that on Facebook I laugh.

I know right away, that unless that person told me that they were taking a trip to London, I'm talking to a hacker.

A couple of times I've written articles about hackers and then sent them the link. The first time the person just disappeared.

The second time, they cussed me out and told me what a rotten person I was, and how they make more money than I'll ever see, at which point I laughed again and agreed with them. Then I asked them why they don't get a real job...they disappeared.

With Facebook, it takes a little more than simply changing your password to get rid of them. I don't use my phone for Facebook, I use my computer, and there, I go under settings, then go to "Security and login", scroll down to "Where you're logged in" and you'll see all the places that you've had Facebook open. It will tell you a city and state. (Mine says that right now I'm in Wisconsin, but since it's the only place active and well, I'm here in Iowa, I assume that's off) Use your judgment. If you notice a place that you've never been, chances are you've been hacked. If there's a variety of places, and you don't travel, you've probably been hacked. Just to be safe, just go down to "Log out of all sessions" on a computer it will be on the lower right of that same section of "Where you're logged in."

During the Sesquicentennial I was traveling all over the county and I was hacked, which is probably why I'm having trouble with my computer. Yes, I have antivirus programs on my computer, but apparently they aren't working. I also have it set so that I'm notified if my password is ever changed on Facebook.

As soon as I discovered that I had been hacked because someone sent an email to tell me, I started changing my passwords. As soon as I did, my phone started dinging because someone else was trying to change it back. After about an hour, it quit. So, folks, it's a crazy world out there.

Be careful.

And for Pete's sake, DON'T help your friend who has lost their luggage, been mugged and all this right after they had a car accident! Just simply walk away and find another way to contact your friend to tell them that they've been hacked.

Just a friendly bit of neighborhood advice...