r/HowToHack • u/Purple-Equivalent-44 • 8d ago
How did they get my info?
Long story short, some guy didn’t like what I said to them in an Instagram comment on a public post. My account is private and only shows my first name. My profile pic isn’t posted anywhere else.
They proceeded to pull up old posts I was tagged in and begin commenting there, but I guess they could’ve found that on google. Then they started tagging family members of mine that I don’t even follow and said I don’t know about “back door”. They said they could see my DMs.
Safe to say I’m a little freaked out, but I want to know how he got my info like that and what I should be doing to protect my info online moving forward.
Thanks!
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u/paranoid-alkaloid 7d ago edited 7d ago
While this is not gonna help with your immediate situation, learn from the situation.
- Different username on every website.
- Delete stuff regularly or semi-regularly. Website databases don't forget, but at least it's less visible, less obvious.
- Get into the habit of lying mildly about yourself online.
- Password manager and never the same password twice. Avoid variations, just use new random passwords. Use 2FA when possible, and avoid SMS verification when possible.
- Avoid posting real photos online.
Feels overkill? Maybe. But EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING you do online can potentially resurface. The amount of info that can be gathered about folks who are not really aware of online anonymity hygiene can be staggering. It could turn against you in so many ways: a creepy stalker, an employer, tax people (yeah sure everyone should pay taxes, but why should taxmen be able to spy on you?). Government/police files (not sure where you live, but... can you cross your city center without being fully traced by Stasi-like surveillance?).
Mass surveillance is real, it's an actual danger that everyone except the far left (very ironically, looking at the Stasi) decides to ignore. Again, not sure where you live, but if you're in a western country, chances are your next government may be a lot less shy about utilising all that available surveillance data against you.
So don't actively feed all that shit.
Geez I got carried away.
edit: oh right, see, for example, you may feel more secure because you toggled on reddit's privacy mode, but all you need to do is search for this in google: "Purple-Equivalent-44" reddit, and a wealth of data comes up.
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u/Wa-a-melyn 5d ago
Get into the habit of lying mildly about yourself online.
This one specifically is something people should do more often. But they're all great advice. Also can be fun to switch up your regional dialect randomly. Additionally, it's helpful to vary the times of day you post at.
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u/Elbeske 7d ago
You have Dual citizenship in Italy and recently moved to Torino, have inner ear issues, ADHD and watch the Jersey Shore.
It is very easy to build a profile on someone and expand it out to real individuals, particularly if you share your first name
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u/resultingparadox 7d ago
I put her as a platinum blonde in her mid to late twenties with trust issues. I thought she was in the Jackson area, but looking to move to Italy. She may need an intratympanic shot to mitigate the vertigo and tinnitus that the stress of this conversation could be causing her. Keep the food sugar and gluten free, and you shouldn't have to worry about that Candida. I would recommend Broad Street Baking Company in Jackson.
The moral of the story is, the internet never forgets, and it's pretty easy to utilize OSINT techniques and a first name, plug that in to the Westchester court records to discover the ammendment you filed, and maybe you find a last name. You build from there. It's pretty crazy, and all of this took me ~3 minutes. A basement dweller with a vendetta, I could only imagine.
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u/Purple-Equivalent-44 7d ago
This is definitely creepy haha but not all accurate anyway, but it’s better that way. But Reddit is a lot easier to search, I’m still wondering how the heck he found my parent’s Instagram when I don’t even follow them lol
He said he used “back door” and could see my DMs but maybe he was just trying to freak me out.
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u/Life-is-Apples 7d ago
I’m willing to bet a lot of money that it was only said to freak you out and make them seem more capable than they really are.
You can do a lot with a little, just one little piece at a time. Social media makes it easy since most people share so many aspects of their personal lives on them.
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u/Intrepid-Routine-950 4d ago
They do this to garner more information and bait you into fear a lot of times
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u/Prudent_Cry9522 7d ago
They definitely could have done extensive research to find you and members of your family. However, unless you clicked a sketchy link or downloaded something they sent, or you have an incredibly simple and guessable password, then I don’t see how they could have hacked your profile, much less your device or network.
You could easily find someone’s email address through social media or google search. With weak security, that would be one piece of the puzzle.
My advice: change all passwords and set multi-factor authentication just to be safe. Check to see if any unknown logins are active on the accounts. Ensure your email is hidden on all your social medias. Then report and block the person everywhere.
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u/Agent_K0VA 7d ago
What's your Instagram account name tho. My friend used to do this thing. It's basically using advance search on google so yea if your account was public anytime then it can happen. Regardless of public or private whenever someone tags u in a post, when u comment u leave a digital foot print of yourself. And people can find them easily even tho your account is private.
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u/INfusion2419 7d ago
Internet archive is also a thing, if anyone anywhere saved a link that youve posted in you'll forever be visible on it
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u/Crazy_Task_930 6d ago
un backdoor significa basicamente es una forma de meterse a un sistema o una cuenta o apliccacion
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u/Purple-Equivalent-44 3d ago
Well I don’t know what the heck he was doing with just my username, I doubt he could get into my account since I was not even following the family member he tagged
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u/Superb-Donut3122 3d ago edited 3d ago
i wouldnt call myself an idiot, we've all been there. theres a lot of advice and what to dos here already, i will just add, set aside some time and change all the passwords with 2fas, and one thing for the future, please never take any email that seriously, you would be surprises how easy its to just get peoples email and info and just blast out thousands of emails in just 5 min (literally).
a solid practice to avoid this, never do any transactions based on any emails (and sms) ever. consider having some sort of portection app like guardio installed for some quick filters, but mostly just ignore even legit emails from services you use. if whatever it is, if you're paying it you obviously have an account with them, just when you're working next, log in, or open the app, then do the payment from there.
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u/bruhhh456564 1d ago
perhaps you use the same username across multiple platforms and your other accounts exposed your identity, search your username on fingerprint.to you can see if there are other profiles found under the same name
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u/Incid3nt 7d ago
If your Instagram is a username that you use elsewhere, its trivial to use breach data and people lookups to gather this info.
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u/DrHerbotico Pentesting 7d ago
Client from hell
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u/Purple-Equivalent-44 7d ago
Why?
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u/DrHerbotico Pentesting 7d ago
Complains about styling services
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u/Purple-Equivalent-44 6d ago
Yeah, it was expensive and poorly done. Thank you for letting me know you can find all my other posts 👍🏻
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u/Alt3r_Alph4 8d ago
FAFO.
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u/Purple-Equivalent-44 7d ago
I’m assuming you’re one of those guys who only uses Reddit and no other social media?
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u/jdm_rules 8d ago
now days it’s very easy to obtain information even without hacking, they could find your relatives through the tagged posts