My Email Account Was Used by a Stranger

Like many, I, too, have multiple Email accounts. My secondary account, which I use to register for non-essential accounts like Facebook, etc., is rarely used.

One day, after a long while, I checked that secondary Email account, which doesn’t even display my real name. I saw repeated Emails from some site that I never even visited. This was some kind of dating site, far from Jewish or anything in which I’m interested or involved. I went to the site by clicking on the link in the Email. I was routed to the profile of some 47-year-old German woman with overbleached hair and garish makeup, advertising herself in very tight fitting, short, animal print clothes that revealed more than they covered, of her ample frame.

You readers can well imagine that I was shocked, disgusted and felt violated! I would assume that she hacked my Email account to validate her account with that site. After I regained my composure (in a matter of minutes), I decided to strike back and teach her a lesson.

First, I began to try to guess her password and log into her account, since I already knew the Email address. Without success, I then went to my Email account and promptly changed my password. After that, I navigated back to the site and clicked on “Forgot Password,” which sent me an Email to reset my password.

I clicked and reset the password, went back to the Email to validate and I was IN that account. Okay, so now I was in business, cooking with gas, or whatever colloquialism you prefer.

I slowly and deliberately deleted EVERYTHING she had in her account. That’s right. Every photo, every piece of information she put in her profile. I also changed the account’s password.

After much time navigating the site, I finally found where the site hid the option to delete the account. It took a good 20 minutes or so because the option was buried deep under many links, with names that were very obscure. I not only clicked the option to delete the entire account, I checked and rechecked by trying to find the profile and to log back in. Finally, the site told me that there was no such profile. VICTORY!

As a rule, I’m very careful on the Net. My passwords are safe, etc. but things happen. Well, this was how I dealt with it — Orit-style!