HAVING YOUR IDENTITY STOLEN

Has this ever happened to you?

It happened to me 4 days ago. On returning to Brisbane, Australia from a wonderful birthday celebration in Fiji, I was facebook hacked and my identity stolen.

At first, my whole concern was loosing my connection with everyone. Not being able to communicate and know what was going on in my reality and world. It was a surreal feeling to be totally cut off like that.

Who was I without my identity?

This self questioning lead me down the path to realising just how much my/our lives can and in my case, have been, taken over and manipulated by social media platforms. 

We all lived quite harmoniously prior to social media didn't we. It didn't bother us that we couldn't see what our friends were doing 24/7.  Now, our lives go into complete turmoil when we loose this ability.  It's finding the right balance.

Did I really loose 'me' in this process? Of course not, but it felt like it at first. It was my main way of connecting with so many people all at once and sharing positive vibes, whilst also supporting and encouraging them too. 

After a few days, I settled down realising I could always start over. It wasn't the end, it could be a fresh new beginning if necessary.

It was time to 'look at life from a higher perspective'. To take a pause to see things more clearly.  Time to get 'back on track' with what was really important and follow God's guidance. I'd let my quality time with God slip of late and this was the perfect scenario to get myself back on track with my spiritual self, pray, be patient and trust that everything happens for a reason for me to learn and grow from.  This was my time to do just that.

It didn't really bother me if I lost my facebook profile.  I always keep all my photos elsewhere backed up anyway, and the content didn't matter.  I could always get my fb friends back again.

It was only when I was contacted via my iphone with a text from a friend asking me if all this machinery being sold to help my sick uncle on my fb post was legit, that I got angry and mad.  My zen disappeared! It's one thing to hack me, but how dare they try and scam my friends of their hard earned money...even worse...trying it on 'as if it's me'.  I was furious. No zen in sight now! haha The warrior in me came to the forefront!  I couldn't event contact fb to alert them as the hackers blocked me from doing that too.

I urgently emailed and texted everyone I could think of to warn them about this scam. It was so stressful. It was such an exhausting and very long day on the phone and computer, but it felt great to warn everyone not to be fooled.

I felt so supported by everyone.  My identity was clearly still intact and enough people recognised it as a scam and reported it for me. So much so, that eventually the post was removed after just 1 day and no-one was scammed and lost money.  Hallelujah!! 

I contacted a dear friend in USA and she helped me to contact fb another way to inform them I'd been hacked.  It worked and this morning I'm back up again!

Alone, we can feel overwhelmed in situations like these, whereas together, when we work as a team, we become unstoppable and can move mountains!!

If you are feeling alone and/or overwhelmed, please reach out.  There are always people there who will gladly help you.

We can all celebrate the gift of life.  There's just so much to be grateful for.