My LinkedIn Story…

Life is fair, it’s not always about work, it’s also about fun but not at the expense of something important, else regret. Reba McEntire said “I don’t think quantity time is as special as quality time with your family”. My family and I were invited for a house warming party. This was certainly a good way to hang-out with my family on TGIF. My family and I haven’t gone out in a while so I thought this is good opportunity since it was in the hood and nothing serious but just a house warming hangout on a Friday evening.

THE HACK

At about 6:27pm on the 18th August, we were having fun and gisting with friends while our table was pregnant with different assorted meals and dishes. That evening didn’t have anything to do with what I got versus what I ordered. To be candid, this phrase is not only applicable to online transactions but also for parties. I was busy chopping the life of my head (If you know, you know) when a mail dropped. LinkedIn sent a mail that this email [email protected] was about to sign into my account with a Mac IOS from an unknown location. I saw the mail but called it a bluff in my heart of heart without taking the necessary actions which was to quickly click the link in the mail to resist the hacker from getting a slice from my evening fun with my family but my priority at that moment was the nice time I was enjoying with my family.

THE REALITY

I dashed out of my sleep that morning at past 8am hoping to catch with the hacker by sending series of emails to LinkedIn Customer Support whereas I was meant to respond immediately to the email from LinkedIn to nullify the hack. I could recall vividly how tired I was the previous night that I didn’t check my phone and now this suddenly became my reality. Your LinkedIn Account Has Officially Being Hacked!!! I lost my LinkedIn account to an unknown hacker just like that when I barely just got some recommendations few weeks before the day of the hack. As much as I tried to patch my feelings, I couldn’t help but be vulnerable to my spouse about the incident and recount how the event had intruded our fun time together as a family the previous day. I am a lover of Jesus Christ and I hold dearly my faith in him without reserve. That same morning, the Elevation Church Ikorodu was hosting a car wash event at the ifitness gym at Ikorodu, a prelaunch event for the birth of its new expression. The thoughts of not attending this event were very clear to me as my hacked account was a very good excuse not to step out of the house but I discarded the thoughts and attended it irrespective.

THE SUSPENSION

All effort to retrieve my account became impossible despite my incessant mails and identity checks routine every week. I couldn’t seem to get over the fact that my account was gone like that. Lessons learnt in a hard way, I could have done the two-step verification all the while but sometimes, we do not see the need for a thing until something happens, then we will run, ask and seek for help in every way possible. This was where I was at the time, I reached out to my colleague at work, a friend and my former boss to also help in sending emails to LinkedIn which most of them did all in the bid to get my account back. Apparently, the hacker was enjoying the luxury while I wallow but the most annoying one for me in all of this was a pedestrian, we shared cab to work told me that his own LinkedIn account was hacked as well but he got it back in two weeks and then assured me not to worry that I will get it meanwhile it’s a month already since I’ve been sending mails. After the motivation from the pedestrian, I decided to try again if luck will be on my side at this material point in time. I went through the normal verification processes again until I got the shocker. We Are Sorry, this account has been temporarily suspended!

THE LESSON

I didn’t know what to do anymore other than to move on but it was difficult but I had to do something. After two months of trying to get my account, I gave in and created another account with my work mail but the nostalgic experience of how I first signed-up on LinkedIn years ago wasn’t fun at all. Amidst this whole drama, I discovered a different side of me like coaching and mentoring people in personal branding and teaching people how to use LinkedIn which I didn’t know I could do and I got a writing job through recommendation that also opened my eyes to new opportunities. On 24th October, I mustered courage again to send another email to LinkedIn Customer Support and voila! I got a positive response from the team that morning and by evening, I was sent a link to change my password for the first time since the hack. That was how I Retrieved My Account when I thought I had given up. I am grateful to have met madam Solape Azazi and Fidelis Okafor during this time of self-discovery but the summary of the lessons learnt to avoid any reoccurrence in the nearest future were:

·?????? If being proactive is a skill, develop it.

·?????? Life is made up of priorities, set yours right.

·?????? If giving up doesn’t solve any problem, why give up?

·?????? Sometimes, it’s okay to try again and again and again till you get it

·?????? Be open-minded, there’s always something new to discover or uncover

·?????? Why wait, go ahead with your two-step verification. Do it now!

·?????? Tell your story, you don’t know who is rooting for you.

Today, I have come to acknowledge the blessings in disguise during the times of challenge or a set-back. ?It’s exactly 3 months today November 18th and I want to quickly recount my testimonies here as I have also shared my learnings within this time:

·?????? I recovered my lost LinkedIn Account

·?????? I got a fully funded scholarship to a Tech School

·?????? I got an membership acceptance email from ForbesBLK

·?????? I got an acceptance email into 麦肯锡 Forward Learning

·?????? Finally, God crowned all with a New Born Baby, an addition to my family.

Do you have a LinkedIn story? What are you grateful for? Share with the world your story…