Tara A. Spears
It’s been six years since the last time I lost my cell phone but this time it was a nightmare. I’m traumatized by the current security policy on all the apps. It has been three weeks of hell, stress, and frustration to regain the function of half my apps.
I’ve cussed like a soldier, popped Tylenol like candy for stress headaches, chatted DAILY with some techie about how to recover an account. I might not be adept with new technology but I have tenacity-finally achieving access to my most important apps.
There are several lessons that I learned from my three-week Facebook crash course, most importantly, that it is a tighter web world than the last time I installed anything electronically. Heck, I’m a techie dinosaur so I was caught off guard by all of the cyber security now in place. I’m going to focus on Facebook in this article but the process is fairly typical of other apps I use, such as banking. I hired techies to guide the process but you have to physically be with them because of the required videos and other personal data asked for.
How the story began, I was popping into a store on main street and my cell slid out of my bag. A visitor walking behind grabbed the phone and ran the other direction. Since this is not my first stolen phone, I knew to report it as soon as possible to Telcel. Previously, when my purse was stolen, I had only contacted the banks to terminate the cards. When I was replacing my Mexican visa, the government was upset that I had not reported the theft. The lesson from that experience was to contact every type of business. As with most people, I have much more than friends now stored on my cell so I was instantly concerned.
Within an hour of losing the phone I was reporting it stolen in Telcel office. This is where I made my first big mistake: I asked if I could keep my previous number. It’s doable if you purchase a new device, have the copy of your contract, plus your Mexican federal ID (your plastic green visa card that has your CURP printed.) By reporting the phone number stolen it red flagged my apps so when I went home and started uploading needed programs into my new phone, I was blocked, blocked, blocked. That’s why I had to directly contact each company to explain to the representative what happened and have the human override the computer block of that particular number.
The second huge mistake that I made was not reading the application’s policies. A couple of the techs suggested that I go with a different choice for my user name, but I was too busy stressing to put it together. I prefer using a ‘phrase’ type name- hey, I’m an author! But many of the businesses require you to use the name on your official documents; the problem is that I haven’t used my birth name for, oh, 50 years. Let’s look at my nemesis, Facebook, as an example.
The third hurdle I had was the requirement to use equipment that you had already installed the app on. In my situation, I only se two, my laptop and my cell. The cell was stolen, I had just obtained a new laptop a couple of months ago but I had not used it to access three of my must have apps. I couldn’t meet that criteria for activating my existing account. Ditto with reset password- blocked.
If you suspect your account has been hacked, visit www.facebook.com/hacked on a device where you’re already logged into Facebook. Reset your password IF you can access the email address or cell phone number that you previously used to log in.
The last time I had created accounts, there weren’t restrictions on names but now you really do need to look at the policies first. I spent days being blocked because I kept entering phrases, refusing to use my official name. I caved to a variation and finally completed the installations. Note that your primary profile is the first one you create when you sign up for Facebook. The name of your primary profile should be the same name you use in your everyday life.
I chafe at Big Brother having the power and knowledge of my personal data. On the other hand, I need the internet for business. I was surprised Facebook denied me access to even reading posts without submitting a name that they could confirm. I sent videos, picture holding number, etc. but I refused to send a copy of my passport. If I had complied to all the demands-given away my entire identity- I probably could have completed sign ins within a week.
In order to avoid losing access to your various online accounts, make sure that you have an active means of communication listed with each vendor. It’s best if you’re the only person who can access the email addresses and mobile phone numbers listed on your account.
Knowing what I know now, I would have changed my phone number and purchased new business cards. It would have been cheaper, faster, less stressful. I’m sure that I spent 40 hours installing eight apps. OMG, but life is too short for this! The next time I lose a phone, that’s it, I will go back to using a dumb phone rather than go through this process again.
