Just last week, one of my friends who is our fellow steemian also, can't access his steemit account. Every time he entered his WIF, the message kept appearing that says "Incorrect Password". He is sure that he never change anything in his account and password but to his big surprise, he can't log in anymore. He has no idea if he was hacked or what, its just like that his WIF was changed without his knowledge. For a few days of observation, there is no activity or anyone controlling his account. It frustrates him so much since his $$$ was locked in his account and that was amounting to several thousand. He was searching for any support but to no avail he found none.
The Solution!
I just accidentally found the FAQ and open it hoping to find something in it that can help solve our problem. As I scroll down, I found the Security tab and in there, several sub-topics has been discussed all about security. I opened it one by one until I arrived in the "What should I do if I discover that someone hacked my account?" and it says:
If you made your account through Steemit and it is compromised, immediately visit the Stolen Account Recovery page. This link is also available in the main site menu. You will need to provide the email address that you used when you signed up, your account name, and a master password that was used in the last 30 days.
It is crystal clear now that we can recover the stolen/lost/hacked account in two important conditions:
- Your old WIF or owner key must be 30 days or less from the time that your account has been hacked or stolen for you to recover it and steemit.com can provide you with new WIF and send it in your registered email. More than the days specified will mean disaster with your account and it is impossible to recover.
- Your account was signed up via steemit.com and not to any third party website or the like. Steemit has the default recovery account for the users who signed up in their website steemit.com.
The step-by-step Procedure for WIF Recovery
1.) Look for the "Faq" in the steemit window and open it.
2.) Scroll down till you find the "Security" Tab and click the item "What should I do if I discover that someone hacked my account?"
3.) Click the "Stolen Account Recovery" and the window will pop up asking for your Steemit Account Name and your old password that is less than 30days from the time your account was compromised.
4.) Enter the necessary data and wait for the new WIF or password that will be sent to your registered email. In my friend's case, it took 2 days before he receives the mail with new WIF in it.
The above procedure was the steps that I did in recovering the WIF of my friend's account and its quite long process, LOL. But there is a shortcut method and I just discovered it after we recovered his WIF, LOL. There is a link directly to "Stolen Account Recovery" just below the "FAQ" link.
