Hello From Madrid

Anyone who received an email from me earlier today was probably surprised to learn that I was mugged in Madrid, Spain yesterday, and lost all my money and credit cards. A few kind souls emailed me back immediately only to learn that "this was not a hoax, and that the hotel was refusing to let me use the telephone anymore." The embassy was giving me problems because my passport was stolen too, and I had no ID on me. A PO address in Madrid was given for all your generous loans, which I would pay back immediately, of course.
Anyone who really knows me knew it wasn't true.The language seemed funny, the i wasn't capitalized several times when talking about "me", and besides, Sandy couldn't write this whole sad story without at least a curse word or two.

After receiving my first phone call early this morning, I hoped to email my entire 125 addresses to warn of the hoax, but I couldn't get into my Hotmail account, because they changed the password. They also added a secondary email account, their own, so when I tried to change the password to regain control of the account again, the new password went off to their account. When I opened my Hotmail  account back in my internet dark ages, 1995, I didn't even know what a secondary email address was.

What to do? What to do?

I spent HOURS this afternoon, wading through Google links and Microsoft support sites hoping to restore my account. I learned today that Hotmail has been compromised many times in the last year. In one accident in Oct 2009, literally thousands of Hotmail passwords were sent off on the internet. Hackers continue to hack Hotmail daily, and their recovery support is dismal to non-existant. People wrote on various sites that they have been waiting weeks, months, for Microsoft support to contact them. I can't even close the account right now, if ever.

Later on this afternoon, I checked my Roadrunner email account, only to learn that a request had been made to change the password on my Facebook account. What the hell?!? Facebook? I hurriedly went to open my account... guess what? It was temporarily unavailable. Within 5 minutes, I navigated through menus and boxes, verified my account, identified a few "friends", and by crackey, I regained control of my Facebook. I was able to write out a message to my family and friends about the events of the day. Facebook asked me if I would like to see a record of the suspicious activity in the last 24 hours. Heck, yes! I was even shown a map of Eastern Africa, with a mark on Ghana. At 2:49 am today, a request came in to change my password, and alter some email addresses.  Facebook was smart enough to shut down my account temporarily. (Those darn Yale kids are so smart. I hope by now, you've seen the movie Social Network. See Oct 3 blog post for a review)
Hotmail, on the other hand, aside from ease of use, is useless in a crisis. If you are using Hotmail, or any other company, please list several alternate email addresses for yourself. If you don't have a second email address, list your kid's or a neighbor's. They can alert you when someone has changed your password, and you might stand a chance. I didn't. Delete my hotmail from your address book, if you have it.

In the meenwhile i hope dearly you continue to support my endeavor and send me u s dollars cash by Western Union to the address which i so lovingly included in the space below. You are always my friend and i will pay you back when i return to usa. Thank you very much.