Beware, my lovelies. Even your Pinterest account can be hacked by malicious spammers.
My Pinterest account was hacked sometime during the night. My mug shot still appeared the same, but the info in my header had been changed. It was showing a link to a “chocolate” company in “Paris”. Yeah, right.
Additionally, two boards had been added to my account. Both of them appeared to be associated with financial scamming aimed at homeowners. I have removed both boards. I have also been reviewing all of my boards to see if any unwanted pins have been attached to them. So far, it looks as though everything is okay.
The hackers went so far as to send out emails through my Pinterest account to various people telling people I had a special Pinterest pin just for them. Luckily, Pinterest caught on quickly to the hack and locked my account so that when people tried to click on the links from their email accounts, the links would not work. THANK YOU PINTEREST!!!!!
If any of you receive a Pinterest associated email that says it is from me, please do not open it. I did not send out any Pinterest associated emails or invitations to view pins.
Aside from the Pinterest hackers, I have also recently discovered a major Pinterest deception from unscrupulous individuals which involves stealing complete blog posts, recipes, and photos from legitimate food bloggers. (Yes, I have had some of my own blog posts stolen by these people.) I was already in the process of writing a lengthy blog post alerting Pinners and food bloggers alike to the blog theft scam when my Pinterest account was hacked. The blog post is still in progress, but here is a spoiler for anyone and everyone–if you see a great looking food pin that is laid out in a vertical format and involves a series of step-by-step photos, there is a huge chance that the pin will take you to a fake food blog. I’m calling these blogs, “the blog mafia”. I’ll tell you more about them in an upcoming post.
Using photos from one of my own blog posts, here is a sample of what these fake bloggers post on Pinterest to lure you to their blogs:
The upcoming post explains in more detail what fake bloggers do and how to avoid their blogs as well as how to avoid repinning their pins. Now I have been victimized by scammers on two fronts–my blog and my Pinterest account–I have heard a call to action loud and clear.
Have a good day. Remember, I have not sent you, and will not send you, anything from Pinterest, so don’t open a Pinterest email if it says it is from me.
~Terri
Terri-I’m SO sorry this happened to you. I’m glad that Pinterest is on top of this and you got notified before this spun WAY out of control-bad enough they did what they did to you.
I’ll be looking for your next post on the fake bloggers.
Good grief, what a mess. Go figure it only takes a few to make a fun place like Pinterest a headache for some. Such a shame.
Hang in there girl-this too shall pass…………..
Thanks, Carol. I got everything worked out. I am so absolutely disgusted by the filthy vermin that infest every good thing and try to turn those things into something dirty, scandalous, or sensational (as in sensationalism). At least Pinterest was on the ball and nipped it all in the bud.
I’m looking forward to my “fake blogger” post, too. I am still doing some mild sleuthing, finding more and more information. I think that I am going to have to break up the post into two or three posts to address the different aspects of the “fake bloggers” and their links to Pinterest.