9 Mar 2015

A nasty experience with online games


SHave you ever had somebody stealing and playing your game? . I'm talking of online games - such as Farm Story, Hay Day etc. These are the two games that I play and have been playing for some time. While playing Farm Story I made a number of good friends from US , The UK and also from China. Even though I have stopped playing Farm Story I still keep in touch with these friends I had made in the game. 

Hay Day is another of these games - it's more challenging and fun especially once you are in a neighbourhood. Apart from actually 'planting, harvesting and making use of our produce' we can chat and enjoy ourselves with the people in our neighbourhood. But one day recently my farm was hijacked and all my produce that I had accumulated  were stolen. It was the scariest moment - like your identity had been stolen. In fact since the game used our FB address, it is stealing our identity. I quickly changed my password but the hacker still could get in. All my coins were used up to buy things which were then transplanted to his farm. How did he manage to do this? It was my own fault - sheer carelessness. He came in the guise of an Fb friend and wanted me to add him as a friend. Like a fool I added him and when he asked me to go to a certain website ( to move to higher levels faster) I did. The website asked for my password and like the gullible fool that I was i filled in the password without a second thought. Immediately however I realised my mistake but it was already too late
. Within seconds he had my password and accessed my farm. In front of my eyes I could see stuff in my barn being put on sale for the minimum  of coins. I felt helpless and angry. I switched off my tablet and proceeded to delete the account. However it was too late because in half an hour he had sold everything I had in my barn- things that had taken me months of playing. And if that is not enough he even passed my farm to some friends of his! I felt violated. I changed all my passwords and even my id. But to no avail. Right now I feel like a fugitive  - running from group to group hoping he cannot find me. 
Finally after much complaints to HD admin I finally could get my farm back. HD had updated the game and to continue one had to use one's password. From then on I felt slightly safer. Weeks passed and the intruder was never seen again. I had learned a valuable lesson in online security.