Hello everyone. As many of you know, I was recently cyberattacked. Let's get into it. I am going to COMPLETELY spill the beans here. Many things have come to light that are nothing short of "fishy" when it comes to the steemit user who touts himself as some sort of "affiliate marketer." I first "met" this clive character a couple months back must've been right when this profile of his started in December 2017.
My first interactions with this steemit user were on Facebook as he was in my group, Steemit Dreamit, that for security reasons is currently archived.
Wasn't long before I was getting some message from CLIVE that he couldn't post his links on Facebook because "Facebook had blocked" him from posting about steemit because it was driving too much "traffic" away from Facebook.
Makes some sense and I am sure FB is NOT a fan of all the steemit links from thousands of steemers who promote their links on Facebook. I was more or less like "oh, okay sorry that sucks", and more or less forgot about it. I did NOT assist "Clive Martin" in posting his links up on FB by the way because, as much as I like to help up and coming steemers, posting their links is NOT my job.
Over time I seemed to encounter this user more frequently. I started supporting him on steem which as many of you know is (or was) my baby here on Steemit, a manual curation account for primarily east coast steemians with the hopes of east coast meetups down the line.
My interpretation of "east coast" is YES broad considering that there's only one other regional specific steemit curation account that I am aware of and that is @rockymountainsteem. Michigan doesn't really fit into either of those regions so I picked clive up over there.
I made this little funky diagram here which is very basic but basically to show the multiple ways in which this steemian "knew" or was acquainted with ME, .
Earlier I mentioned Clive was into some "affiliate marketing." This was where this scam artist GOT me. By the way here's some screenshots from his Facebook profile and his page on Facebook "follow clive Martin."
Because there's SO many ways to shortcut genuine success right? I will mention at this point I was not friends with him on Facebook and outside my group on Facebook, Steemit Dreamit, I don't do a whole lot of Facebook. And some delightful scammy spamitis here for you from his other "follow clive Martin" page....
I'll also mention at this point that prior to being hacked I didn't know he had this page.
Just prior to being hacked, I posted about some of the abuse going on here on steemit:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@chelsea88/why-it-is-a-good-idea-to-reinvent-the-wheel-sometimes-warning-major-rant-calling-for-a-whale-wake-up
Clive had a lot to say:
The "affiliate" product was my nutraceuticals hemp paste that I had been linking in the bottom of some of my posts. I bought into their company last fall and do have the ability to sell their products. I may mention I've had no sales to date but that's neither here no there because I DON'T CARE! I would have bought in anyway because it gives me 20% off their products that I FULLY recommend whether you buy under me or directly through my nutra.
SO that's where this is ON ME for engaging with him heavily the night of the first (3/1). By "heavily" I am referring to a "video chat" that no sound would come through so I disconnected and just spoke on the phone with him.
Turns out that was an international call! That even after much discussion with Verizon, resulted in a $500 cell phone bill for me this month.
SO HOW DOES THAT RELATE BACK TO STEEMIT? By MARCH 3RD,I couldn't get on my steemit with my key or come to find out, NONE of my keys. I then proceeded to go immediately to reset my keys, having suspected the worse at this point, through stolen accounts recovery.
I guess it was the "perfect storm." I was already paranoid enough. There was a period that i looked at my steemit profile and it said but reputation was "zero" so that didn't help. Icons on my phone were changing around and my device was acting weird.
It was around this time my I lost access to my email account so there went me getting back into my steemit account. This was around the 5th of March at this point.
This email (gmail account) was linked to:
A. Facebook
B. Steemit
C. My cell phone was the two step verification for BOTH GMAIL & FB
It was around this time I was really losing it, mentally. I started doubting just about everything and everybody because this reminded me of a real life time in my teens MANY years ago where I was stalked "IRL." I also have PTSD.
I started having dreadful panic attacks. I spent a day in the local "crisis" center. By the 5th-7th I had no access to my primary gmail or Facebook.
During that time it came to my attention my entire home WIFI was also hacked of Nigerian origin. Interesting. I guess my hacker thought that would be cute.
You can change your origin IP fairly easily. That cost $444 usd to correct to correct this hack. My wifi is now completely secure.
Local police were involved because of the key words "hacked" and "previously stalked." I was advised to change my phone number.
Daily I became more and more hopeless of getting my steemit back which by the way was back at my "normal" rep of 59.
Why was I concerned? Because I couldn't get into my primary email. Two IT specialists not on steemit and one of which is a family friend informed me the email appeared to have been blacklisted.
Blacklisted is NOT DELETED it just means gmail doesn't want you in your account right now because of reports of SCAM from your account.
So I went through the tedious, TEDIOUS gmail account recovery. Once "through" I realized, hmmm, gotta have my old number back for the two step verification process.
No there is NO way around it. That's why google is so "secure." I tried my backup email too by the way and that was fruitless because gmail STILL couldn't "verify" that it was actually me.
Like magic once I changed my number back, I was quickly back onto my gmail and subsequently steemit. It took nearly three weeks.
I learned that steemit sent the account recovery on the 8th. I guess the hacker was booted from my account by then because it worked fine.
To all of you out there who were questioning me about my keys, I had them all. This wasn't a question of KEYS. That's all I'm going to say about that.
Me being at the crisis center resulted in being let go at my job by the way. Even though it was medically and might I say legally justified I was in my first 90 days in an at will place of employment.
A precursory look on steemit page is interesting. He acts like he is some amazing sax player yet sure doesn't post much about that!
A peak into the wallet and you will see seems to be "friends" with clive.
is a bull shit account by the way. Here's their intro post:
Anyone who really knows me on Steemit knows I don't do upvote for upvote. It is not how you're going to get an organic following on here!!
Clive painted himself as the steemian who was against follow for follow! Otherwise he would've never gotten into my group, steemit dreamit. On steemit dreamit, the afore mentioned now archived Facebook page, one had to answer questions regarding organic followings etc and that was reviewed by me.
I've found some more sketchy stuff but what I've told you here is all factual as it relates to ME personally.
I have also as late as March 18th (so just a few days ago) had SOMEONE trying to sign my gmail onto "zaif" which is some CRYPTO EXCHANGE site I'VE NEVER HEARD OF. The individual had also made my cryptopia account be locked as they had tried to hack into it through MY email.
Very clever, clive!! Let's just call him "Clever Clive."
I hope can look into some of this. I would hate for anyone else to have these same problems. I wouldn't wish this crap on my worst enemy. Except for my HACKER maybe. This POS doesn't belong on steemit.
The afore mentioned seems to be a VERY PHISHY account too. Here's a look at what his entire wallet looks like:
Alright that's going to wrap this up. Don't talk to strangers kids!