Thank you, hacker!

Paulina

It's been just over a month since my @p.s.english Instagram account got hacked. How did it get hacked? I fell for a phishing email. Yup. Something I thought would never happen to me!

My account got hacked on Monday 22nd of May at 21:30. As soon as it got hacked, I received the first message from the hacker telling me that he (I actually don't know if it was a he or a she but in my head it's a he) would give me my account back if I pay him a fee. The bastard also said he would delete my account if I don't pay. I then received 4 more messages and about 10 calls on WhatsApp and to my personal IG account (which by the way I never answered).
I managed to regain access to the p.s.english account on Monday 29th May at 07:00. Let me tell you, it was a loooong week! I'd tried something called facial verification (where you scan your face with your phone, send the scan to Instagram and hope that Instagram matches it to the photos/videos on your account) about 237846872364 times for a few days with no luck until finally I got the golden email from Instagram on Sunday afternoon saying that the scan had been successful and I can now reset my IG password. This was just the beginning though. More about it below.

This rather grim experience reminded me of a few things that are incredibly important in learning English (other languages too!) and life in general:

Thanks to the hacker for the reminder to:

  1. Work hard - there is no magic solution to learn English. You have to put work into it. I spent countless hours researching different ways to get my account back. I got no help from the police and Instagram so I knew I needed to put the work in to get it back. I didn't sleep on Sunday night, checking WhatsApp every few minutes, waiting for the hacker to go to sleep (I could see when he last checked his WhatsApp and over the week I got to know the frequency with which he was checking it). I knew I probably had only one chance at getting the account back. Resetting my password was the first step. There were many more I had to take with the speed of light to kick him out for good. He eventually stopped checking his WhatsApp at 03:30 am. I waited a few more hours to be sure he was asleep and then took action. And I succeeded. You can achieve your English goals with hard work too. By the way, I don't encourage staying up all night to do so!
  2. Never give up - sometimes learning gets tough. I've been there (read more about it here). Remind yourself of your goals regularly to keep your motivation up (Is it getting 6.5 in IELTS? Getting a visa to move to the UK/Canada/the US? Quitting the job you hate and moving onto a job of your dreams? Studying your dream subject at university? Being able to confidently answer phone calls in English?). I almost gave up at one point and thought I would never get p.s.english back, but then I reminded myself of all my incredible Instagram followers and how much I love sharing knowledge, motivation and fun with them on my channel. That's what kept me going. 
  3. Take breaks - from studying when you're feeling your brain is fuming. It's totally OK. Our brains often need some time off to simply process what we've learnt and let it settle in our heads. After a break, you'll come back stronger and ready to learn more, you'll see! I had to have a 2-day break towards the end of the week my account got hacked as my body simply couldn't cope with any more sleepless nights and hours of research on how to get my account back, Give yourself permission to have breaks. It's not a sign of failure. It's a sign of progress in the making!
  4. Find good support - somebody who will be rooting for you and your progress with learning English. Somebody you know wants the best for you. One fantastic man (Pablo 💙) reached out to me when he found out I'd been hacked. He listened to me and offered moral support for the entire week. If you don't think you have anybody like that, think again. Hello! 👋 Know that I AM YOUR BIGGEST CHEERLEADER! 

    That's it! I hope you've found this blog post useful :)

    Paulina 'the cheerleader' x

    P.S. If your Instagram account ever get's hacked, let me know. I may be able to help :)
    P.S.2. If you need support with reaching your English language goals, check out my Courses and 1:1 General English and 1:1 IELTS Lessons.



p.s.english Deep Dive

  1. fall for something (phrasal verb) - to be tricked into believing something that is not true 
  2. bastard (noun) - an unpleasant person (offensive)
  3. grim (adjective) - very unpleasant or ugly (informal)
  4. for good (phrase) - for ever, permanently
  5. root for somebody (verb) - to support somebody
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