Hacker true scary story

WEBVTT

1
00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:10.960
This is called hacker. I'm twenty
four years old and I'm from a small

2
00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:15.400
town in Nova Scotia, Canada.
I keep my social circle very small,

3
00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:19.359
just a few friends and my coworkers. Really. I mentioned that as a

4
00:00:19.399 --> 00:00:22.440
point in saying that I don't really
know anyone who would be out to get

5
00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:25.760
me in any way. I browse
read it a lot in my free time,

6
00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:29.519
and I'm an active poster. There
was this one night when I pulled

7
00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:33.039
up readit on my browser out of
boredom, and I had a new message,

8
00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:38.240
which was not unusual because I'd have
people message me in reference to my

9
00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:42.840
post quite often. It was a
message request from some random account, and

10
00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:47.240
oddly enough, it was a now
deleted username. The message said check your

11
00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:52.079
email. Make sure you check your
spam folder. I replied back, huh,

12
00:00:52.119 --> 00:00:55.840
why who is this? In the
meantime, I opened my Gmail and

13
00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.960
went to my spam folder. There's
one email that stuck out from the rest

14
00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:06.480
titled in all caps, I know
who you are. I opened the email

15
00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:10.439
and it was basically a paragraph full
of all my personal information, including my

16
00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:14.680
full name, my Reddit password,
my home address, along with other threats.

17
00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:18.480
Basically, whoever said this email was
asking for a one time payment of

18
00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:25.319
five thousand dollars through bitcoin to a
specific bitcoin wallet address. My heart was

19
00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:27.719
in my throat at this point in
time. I had a terrible feeling of

20
00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:34.280
helplessness, in like the entire world
was collapsing in on me. The first

21
00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:37.640
thing I did was cover my webcam
with a piece of tape. Secondly,

22
00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:40.920
I went back to Reddit to see
if the user had ever answered my message,

23
00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:44.840
and they hadn't. I went to
report the account on Reddit as quickly

24
00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:48.159
as I could, as if that
would even do anything. I replied to

25
00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:52.079
the email, copying and pasting the
exact same message i'd sent the person and

26
00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:56.159
read it on my Reddit account,
asking who is this, how they got

27
00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:00.000
my information and if this was a
prank. I got an email back around

28
00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:04.040
five minutes later, in an all
caps saying no, it's not a prank.

29
00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:07.120
We have all your information, including
where you live, so your best

30
00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:10.800
course of action is to do exactly
what we say and you'll never hear from

31
00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:15.280
us again. Obviously, I was
not going to show out five thousand dollars.

32
00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:19.680
I don't even make a lot of
money to begin with. I contacted

33
00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:22.800
all my friends asking them if it
was any of them, begging them just

34
00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:25.319
to come forward before I call the
police. None of them admitted to it,

35
00:02:25.719 --> 00:02:30.159
so given that threatened to call the
police, I knew it was none

36
00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:32.199
of them. I tried to think
of anyone at work who might have an

37
00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:36.479
issue with me, but I get
along with everyone at work. I chalked

38
00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:39.319
it up to my password somehow being
stolen by a malware or a hacker,

39
00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:45.280
and through that they somehow got the
rest of my information. The main question

40
00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:49.840
was do I pay the money,
and that was absolutely not going to happen.

41
00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:52.879
I forced myself to go to sleep. I left my laptop off the

42
00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:58.080
whole next day. I used my
desktop instead. After getting home from work,

43
00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:00.280
I didn't sign into Reddit or anything, though I did, however,

44
00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:06.080
change my password on all the other
websites and apps. I finally signed into

45
00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:09.639
my laptop late that night because I
was just so bored and curious, curious

46
00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:15.159
but nervous to see if anything had
changed and if I had gotten any new

47
00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:20.599
emails. I signed on and everything
on my computer still looked normal. So

48
00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:23.840
I went to Reddit and I saw
the user who messaged me was now deleted,

49
00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:29.599
and then went to a subreddit which
talked about computer hackers and scams and

50
00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:34.719
such, and I posted my experience. At some point, I noticed the

51
00:03:34.759 --> 00:03:38.639
task bar at the bottom of my
screen turned darker. Curious, I minimized

52
00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:45.520
all windows, and my desktop wallpaper
was different. I knew right away what

53
00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:51.000
it was because I recognized outside of
my bedroom window showing the white frame of

54
00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:53.879
outside my window, and in the
picture there was a flash of the camera

55
00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:59.240
and inside that it also caught me
laying in my bed sleeping. Some seconds

56
00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:02.960
later, a popup window appeared along
with the normal windows air beep sound that

57
00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:13.039
comes up when this happens, the
message dread hey with a winky face emoji

58
00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:17.879
with it. I closed my laptop
scream and forced the computer off by holding

59
00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:21.839
down the power button. I also
pulled my blinds down and called my parents.

60
00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:26.600
I told my dad over the phone
that some hacker got all my information,

61
00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:29.879
and he came over right away with
his truck to help me load any

62
00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:32.199
valuables I could think of into his
truck to stay with them for a while.

63
00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:36.800
Before we drove off off from my
apartment. My dad yelled out like

64
00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:42.240
a madman into the night sky,
basically threatening whoever was hacking me. It

65
00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:46.439
was definitely a scene but I was
too preoccupied with worry to be embarrassed by

66
00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:48.920
it. I saved with my parents
for a few weeks and used my mom's

67
00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:54.600
computer when needed. I blocked that
email address. This sent me the original

68
00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:58.079
email. I finally got back to
my apartment a few days ago. I'm

69
00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:00.360
still very scared to hear a knock, get my window, or get another

70
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:03.680
threatening email. I haven't brought it
to the police yet, as I'm hoping

71
00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:11.120
all this was just a bluff to
try to get me to pay. Yeah,

72
00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:15.240
so that's that's rough. You definitely
want to take cybersecurity very seriously because,

73
00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:17.680
like, there's just a lot of
crazy people out there. I was

74
00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:23.600
actually watching a video today on how
easy it is to get everybody's information.

75
00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:27.279
This guy, you know, showed
how you just go to like a coffee

76
00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:31.519
shop, set up like a hundred
dollars piece of equipment, and every person

77
00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:34.800
who logs in onto the Wi Fi
there, you get their passwords, you

78
00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:40.040
get their emails, and then from
there you can escalate and grab more stuff

79
00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:45.240
like getting a secure shell onto their
computer and start messing with stuff like changing

80
00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:48.120
the wallpaper. Totally doable with a
little tiny bit of training that you can

81
00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:51.160
find completely free on the internet.
Yeah, but they went to his house.

82
00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:55.079
Yeah, that's a bit much,
but that's the whole other level of

83
00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.519
I mean just yeah, Like another
thing about like that kind of stuff is

84
00:05:58.519 --> 00:06:02.560
you definitely do want to coach the
police about that. And there's really,

85
00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:06.160
yell, not a whole lot you
can do by yourself, you know,

86
00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:11.439
in that situation, And definitely good
idea to get out of that area because

87
00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:15.120
they're taking pictures of you, You're
laying in your bed sleeping. That in

88
00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:18.319
the window, that's just you know, you imagine seeing that, like you

89
00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:23.160
just open up your your your wallpaper
on your desktop. Is you and your

90
00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:27.920
bed sleeping. Clearly someone who knew
where he lived. And I would I

91
00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:30.600
would say, you know, in
addition to like going to the police,

92
00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:33.360
you know, I would say definitely, like, you know, don't there's

93
00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:36.079
really no reason to pay these people
because they're crazy. You know that they're

94
00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:41.079
doing crazy things and you're not going
to get You're not gonna give it any

95
00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:43.920
kind of peace from them. You
think it was someone he knew. Possibly

96
00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:51.879
they could be I take this out. It's a bit what it was me.

97
00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:59.680
I think it's possible something like that
happened, so I actually said so,

98
00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:04.079
aw, so I do wonder.
I mean, it's possible. Like

99
00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:09.120
what he doesn't say though, is
if he has like a computer savvy friend,

100
00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:13.639
right, Like that'd be the first
person you'd think of. But how

101
00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:15.759
far do you take it? You
know, I don't know. I think

102
00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:19.439
the bitcoin thing for me almost makes
it seem more legitimate because you do see

103
00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:24.399
so many of these bitcoin scams happening. Yeah, I know. It's such

104
00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:29.839
an easy way to hide transactions of
money. There's a thing called like a

105
00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:35.360
crypto funnel or crypto vortex, and
you basically you put bitcoin into it and

106
00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:40.279
you pull different bitcoin out. Yeah, it's online obviously, but this is

107
00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:45.000
way of hiding where it's going.
Just totally launders some money in seconds.

108
00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:46.439
I personally haven't had this happen to
me yet. I don't know if you

109
00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:49.399
guys have had any issues of this, but not to this extent obviously,

110
00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:54.199
but the thought of that it could
easily happen, it's pretty pretty terriful.

111
00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:58.839
I haven't had, you know,
specifically with bitcoin. I've had my identity

112
00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:01.600
still on year years ago, and
that was a whole process of dealing with

113
00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:05.160
that. Obviously, this is far
more intense and far more extreme. But

114
00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:11.720
you know, it's not a great
feeling, so definitely happens. I don't

115
00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:13.519
remember the statistics off the top of
my head. If you hear it all

116
00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:18.639
the time, how common it is. And this person definitely had a terrifying

117
00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:22.879
one. So it lives in a
cool sunding place, Nova Scotia. Yeah,

118
00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:26.959
oh, I was gonna say it's
very common. But a thing that's

119
00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:31.279
very interesting about it is a lot
of you will feel like they are ashamed

120
00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:35.519
that they get their identity so on. And that's like the number one thing

121
00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:39.480
that hackers rely on is that you
are too ashamed to tell people or to

122
00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:43.120
tell authorities. It's absolutely the wrong
thing to do. You must tell people,

123
00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:46.879
you must let them know. But
it's a big deal with people getting

124
00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:52.000
their identity so on, to be
just like afraid or sad or just they

125
00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:54.960
you know, go in on themselves
feeling that they made a mistake. It's

126
00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.840
not their fault. It's the person
who's doing it that's the terrible person.

127
00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:03.679
And anyway, I just was to
say that because it comes up so often.

128
00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:05.639
You know, people get there doing
this all like you said, all

129
00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:09.200
the time, So I just want
to say that, thank you, Thank

130
00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:11.799
you. Lucas very reassured those of
you listen out there. Luke feels for

131
00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:16.399
you. It's gonna be okay.
It's gonna be okay. Just learn from

132
00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:26.559
your mistakes and yeah, Jeff Townsend, media sees you. Good night.

133
00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:31.519
And the question is do I stay
here? Will you be back? Are

134
00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:35.960
you gonna come back? Will you
be back? Are you coming back?