So I got hacked and it was absolutely awful and it happened in the Christmas The hackers have my main Gmail account and one of my YouTube channels. Eventually they also got it's now called Tesla Inc They changed it and they deleted all the videos from it and it's live streaming some sort of a recording of Elon Musk which was supposed to be a live conference. So I want to make this video real quick because I want to warn other creators and other people on the interwebs to not fall for the scam because this is literally what happened to me I thought it was scam proof but that's just arrogant nobody's scam proof I Got played today. Really really bad.

So basically at some point in the day today Christmas of all days, I get a notification that somebody is trying to access my Gmail accounts both one for my main channel, one for my secondary Channel and before I even say skedaddle data identification that on one account somebody changed my phone number. Recovery phone number. Recovery email. Now mind you, both of these accounts were two-factor authentication accounts, which was mind-blowing to me that they did that.

So I managed to change the password again on my main Channel but they got to it I Got in through a backup code and had my brother-in-law to get in and change the passwords real quick because I realized my computer was compromised so the whole time I was playing cat Mouse with these guys I was doing it from a laptop that was hacked and I didn't know they were watching me through that laptop so they were seeing everything I was doing so I figured out as it was going on I asked my brother-in-law to do it and then he did and then that's how we got away with one of the channels and the other channel is unfortunately gone. So how did this happen so it doesn't happen to other people I think mainly they target creators for this. So I got an email from a company that's I don't want to say the company name but the very reputable company in the in Information Technology Nothing in finance related but a company that advertises a lot a VPN company I won't say which because it's not them who who basically reached out to me. So a famous VPN company that advertises on YouTube a lot reached out to me and they said hey, we want to run the sponsorship on your channel which was kind of normal for me and they offered me an amount.

it was really normal. Nothing outrages, nothing too low. pretty much my standard rates and we went back and forth for a couple of weeks and at some point they sent me a contract and in their contract package there was the Media Kit talking points, legal stuff, blah blah blah and an agreement to sign absolutely straightforward things that you do with every single sponsor on. YouTube So I go to open the contract I Click on it, Nothing opens I was like oh this is when I knew nothing opens and then I look at it and the file is not even a PDF or a word file, it's some sort of an execution file and I look at the email and I realized I got played.

the email says some support at North sorry uh some whatever company it support at and the domain was very similar but absolutely fake. So I realized I got played moments afterwards they took over my accounts I want to really thank Adam Bergman and I'm gonna put his channel in the description of this video Adam Bergman reached out to me and he basically said hey, this happened to me These guys did the same thing to me this is what you got to do to fix the channel and I essentially tweeted about it all of you on on my community my Discord Rich Greg Arden everybody in my Discord Community you retweeted you, you shared it and then within hours YouTube reached out to me in a DM on Twitter and said hey, this is a forum for you to fill out fill out this form. It's a very lengthy form, takes a couple of hours to fill out, but if you fill it out, we'll get your channel back and my friend Adam told me hey, it's going to take like five days but they'll get your channel back now I'm just waiting to see if I'll get it back or not. but unfortunately my entire life is compromised because this main Channel although is safe.

The other backup Channel I had the Tom Dash podcast was sitting associated on an email that was my main Live email. so all my life is on that Gmail account which kind of sucks because it means I had to change 70 passwords and my kids pictures are on it and like 20 years of my life is on that email which kind of sucks to to lose. And the other thing is that laptop I was using to to communicate with these guys and I get malware on it's probably toast so that laptop has to be replaced or wiped I don't know what to do with it so that's pretty much what happened. It sucks I Feel like this is not how I plan to spend my Christmas I Think there's a special place in the hill reserved for people who scam on Christmas I'm not even kidding on Christmas My guys really all I know these are hackers from Russia I don't know where or what I don't know more than that.

Um, but you know they did it on Christmas which kind of sucks. Uh, thank you for Adam Bergman and thank you for my community and Discord thank you for everybody on Twitter that helped me spread the word and get YouTube's attention so they can reach out to me. I'll keep you posted once they get back to me. and let me know what happened, but that's the whole story.

Wasn't a happy Christmas video but um I had a pretty shitty Christmas so hopefully at least it ends well and I hope you guys are actually having a great Christmas with your families and actually having a good time. And yeah, my stomach is uh I haven't ate in like eight hours which for me is a lot I'm just kidding. Anyways, I'll see you all uh very very soon.