The attack came in the dark of night, as such things seem to do.
“Baby,” came my wife’s cry from the Big Table in front of the fire. “You’ve been hacked!”
I was sitting on the old leather couch in the den watching a remarkably bloody television series about Vikings while reflecting, a wee bit smugly, on the capacity of our newly installed double-glazed windows to hold back the growing cold of a Tasmanian winter.
She spun her Mac around so I could read the text; something about us being stuck in Istanbul, wallet stolen; hotel angry, threat of police action, send money quick.
DorkyMum sprung into action. We changed my password, fiddled with some settings and then, like a surgeon, she smiled and said,
“You’re going to be okay.”
I am not good with the Internet. I like yellow legal pads with green horizontal lines like Levenger used to make, the fine graphite recordings of a Cross mechanical pencil. I like to write words with pencil on paper.
DorkyMum explained that everybody in my address book – essentially, everyone I have ever communicated with from my computer – would receive a copy of this blatantly false plea. And if out of genuine concern any one of them answered, they would become fish caught in an evil electronic net.
I was mortified.
Then a curious thing began to happen. First, dozens of friends wrote messages to DorkyMum – not to me, indicating they really are friends and understand the hierarchy of our household – making sure we were aware of the transgression.
And then it got personal.
A performance poet in Singapore offered to rally her anarchist sisters among the underground of Istanbul to bust us out. A fine friend in the old, sweet sailors’ town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire asked if 12 grand would do the trick. Scottish Johnni was gearing up to lead the Niddrie Freedom/Suicide Squad on a rescue mission of epic proportions. And Guitar Paul, former US Congressman, advised everyone to remain calm. He found the message attributed to me most likely false, as it lacked a certain iambic pentameter.
I promise to never, ever, give anyone or anybody my password again, no matter what the premise. I apologize for the inconvenience that hundreds of people have had to deal with in the past few days. I am suitably and thoroughly embarrassed.
Ahh, but I am also thrilled by this unexpected connection with so many of my strange and random and wonderful friends around the world.
Hackers, you want a piece of me?
Johnni and the Niddrie Crew are only the beginning. It gets much, much worse.
Tonight we sleep tight in Tasmania.
Dorkymum | Stories from Tasmania 
Gah what a nightmare – stressful times but I love the positive angle you have found in it x
Oh no! I have had these before and I’ve ignored them.I did chuckle that some of your friends took it seriously.First it’s nice to know that they are there for you but secondly it’s worrying that they never realised it was a scam *runs off to change password to Ebay that I was meant to do last week*
*googles ‘iambic pentameter* Hello Dorky Dad. Drayco Malfoy’s Mum here. Glad to know all is going well and that you have friends with such good hearts who knew immediately to go to Dorky Mum. I am a fan of pencil and paper myself and completely understand!
What a nightmare! Glad all is ok though, definitely one of those things to laugh about afterwards. Totally agree that actual writing is epic!
That’s the problem when you move abroad, people are never actually sure whether you might be somewhere unusual! 😀 My friend had this happen and the email said that she was stuck in Prague, which at just 3 hours away was quite believable… Glad all turned out well….
How completely irritating. Glad it was so easily fixed, and even more so that you have such fabulous friends across the world.
A very entertaining piece, DorkyDad: made me chuckle. I realise it’s a little scary at the time but I love the fact that friends joined in with the fun and offered to help you out.
Very well written DorkyDad – you don’t fancy blogging just yet then?
Indeed I went to change my ebay password to discover that somehow my e-mail address had been changed!
I love this. Not the subject matter but writing. Good work DorkyDad
And I am shaking my fist at those pesky hackers.
Long may the mechanical pencil live and may something Viking-like (we too have been watching those programmes – is it all really necessary?) happen to the hackers. Sounds like Team Dorky have it all well sussed now
Oh god! I can’t believe they actually though about something like this! Love the writing too! hen do you start your own blog Dorky Dad?
Whoa that’s scary. But if it ever happens again, just send me your username and password so I can fix the hacking problem for you.
It must be reassuring to have a mix of friends – those who are pure of heart and innocent in the ways of hackers and those who are more pragmatic and practical souls.
As a development officer, I hope you accepted the $12 grand! (Sorry, i couldn’t resist…)
Yes, I got the email and knew immediately it was not your prose. There was no wit, no charm, no personality. I knew you were safe and sound Down Under. And glad for it.
Eeeek, very scary, and well done DorkyMum for springing into action 😉
I hate hackers!!! 😦
Fabulous your friends all popped out the woodwork and what talents dorkymum has hey!
Oh my gosh scary! It really can happen to all of us!