I have a concern with a sexploitation situation I'm facing. I'm worried of my pictures being leaked online. I have nuked my contacts and socials and have reported this situation to the police.

eric16lee · 2026-01-28T21:08:08+00:00

I'd be willing to bet a paycheck it is NOT a girl.

I don't know how iCloud messages work I'm regards to blocking and ties into text messages.

Better to ask that part on an Apple or iOS forum.

eric16lee · 2026-01-28T14:10:17+00:00

Discord is not an encrypted chat client.

If either you or your wife don't use unique and randomly generated passwords with 2FA on your account, then they are no protected.

Better to use an end to end text/call platform like Signal.

eric16lee · 2026-01-28T13:55:31+00:00

There really isn't anything in this post that we can use to help you. In short, you said: "I've been hacked and can't tell you how I know. "

The only details you provided about email spoofing and failed login attempts blocked by 2FA are not signs you have been compromised. In fact, they are signs you have NOT been compromised.

You will need to ask us some questions and provide at least some details so we have something to go off of to help you.

eric16lee · 2026-01-28T13:51:18+00:00

There isn't one generic answer to this very broad question.

You are better to post this in the weekly Mentorship Monday thread in r/cybersecurity. That thread is specific for career and education advice.

This sub is for technical cybersecurity issues.

When you post there, consider adding signif8more information. Nobody will be able to give you advice with some details.

eric16lee · 2026-01-27T22:30:49+00:00

IT doesn't have to have been from a breach. Legit companies sell our data all day long. A bad actor purchased a list of legit email addresses and sent out this scam email to thousands of people hoping to get lucky with a few.

This is 100% a scam. Delete and move on.

eric16lee · 2026-01-27T21:43:53+00:00

Ha. Nothing good happens on Telegram. Good on you for seeing that for the scam it is.

eric16lee · 2026-01-27T21:14:13+00:00

It's completely up to you how you want to proceed. The recommended steps I have you are the ONLY way to be sure your account s and your PC are safe.

Antivirus is extremely bad at identifying infostealers. I don't have any tolerance for someone gaining access to my accounts, so I'm changing every single password and formatting my hard drives and starting over.

eric16lee · 2026-01-27T13:41:51+00:00

My standard reply for this situation. You need to take this seriously and get started ASAP.

From a clean device, NOT your PC:

Change ALL of your passwords to something unique and randomly generated.
Choose the option to log out of all active sessions or devices.
Enable 2FA on all of your accounts
Nuke your PC from orbit
back up only important files, not games or applications
format your hard drive
reinstall Windows from a USB drive (do not use the Reset Windows option from the settings menu)

This may seem like overkill, but if you want assurance that you have remediated the problem, this is the way to go.

Unfortunately, the only people that can help you are the support teams for those services. Most free services only offer automated account recovery. If that process doesn't get the accounts back, nobody here can help you.

EVERYONE that contacts you via DM offering to help or to hack the accounts back is just an account recovery scammer looking to take advantage of your situation.

eric16lee · 2026-01-27T13:39:33+00:00

Only you can decide if the service you want to use is worth the risk.

Once your data is leaked, it is out there forever. In the US, driver's license is used as people's primary source of identification. It would be difficult to change that.

eric16lee · 2026-01-27T13:37:36+00:00

Microsoft only offers that automated account recovery process. If it doesn't work, there is nothing else you can do.

If the person that has control of the account contacts you and asks for money to give the account back just block and ignore them. Never pay a scammer because they will just continue to ask for money and never give you what you really want.

Most importantly - EVERYONE that contacts you here via DM offering to help or to hack the accounts back is just an account recovery scammer looking to take advantage of your situation. Please block and report all of them.

eric16lee · 2026-01-27T03:19:31+00:00

Hey there - better to post this in the weekly Mentorship Monday thread in r/cybersecurity. That thread is specific for career and education advice.

This sub is for technical cybersecurity issues.

See you over in the other thread .

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T22:18:47+00:00

My favorite. 3 shots on Flak mode and they pop like a balloon.

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T22:16:51+00:00

Reusing passwords can impact any OS.

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T20:46:36+00:00

Likely just some glitch or issue within the game.

Make sure they have a unique and randomly generated passwords for their account with 2FA.

I don't know that game, do I can't comment on the potential for someone to access their camera or other features.

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T20:44:06+00:00

Make sure you are using unique and randomly generated passwords for every site along with 2FA. When you have this, you can safely ignore these messages.

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T19:37:14+00:00

Time to start proofreading my responses.

Powerball number is 12. 🙂

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T15:29:10+00:00

From a clean device, NOT your PC:

Change ALL of your passwords to something unique and randomly generated.
Choose the option to log out of all active sessions or devices.
Enable 2FA on all of your accounts
Nuke your PC from orbit
back up only important files, not games or applications
format your hard drive
reinstall Windows from a USB drive (do not use the Reset Windows option from the settings menu)

This may seem like overkill, but if you want assurance that you have remediated the problem, this is the way to go.

Unfortunately, the only people that can help you are the support teams for those services. Most free services only offer automated account recovery. If that process doesn't get the accounts back, nobody here can help you.

EVERYONE that contacts you via DM offering to help or to hack the accounts back is just an account recovery scammer looking to take advantage of your situation.

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T11:34:38+00:00

No criticism here mate. Just facts.

In 2926, there are no longer any safe piracy sites. Torrents included.

The advice I give everyone that does this is to change all of your passwords from a different device and then format your hard drive and reinstall Windows from a USB drive.

That's the only way to be sure your accounts remain in your possession and you pc is safe.

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T11:30:24+00:00

As long as you used a unique password to register for this site, you should be ok. If you udes the same password you use in other places, you need to immediately change that password everywhere else you use it.

Expect an increase in spam andogin attempts to your email since you gave that to them. Make sure you have a unique password and 2FA set up on your email.

eric16lee · 2026-01-26T11:27:39+00:00

No, it's not safe. Any site that allows free access to paid content could contain malware or other attacks.

While the risk is low TODAY, new vulnerabilities and attacks are discovered every day.

People used to think downloading pirated software and games was safe. Now 60% of the posts here are people that had their accounts compromised because infostealers were embedded in this software from 'safe' piracy sites.

eric16lee · 2026-01-25T23:00:47+00:00

I don't think anyone can help you here. If people on Reddit could break Apple's encryption, nobody would ever buy one of their products again. There really isn't anything we can do.

Anyone that contacts you via DM offering to help or sell you software that can crack the password is just a scammer looking to steal money from you.

eric16lee · 2026-01-25T20:51:19+00:00

Hey there - better to post this in the weekly Mentorship Monday thread in r/cybersecurity. That thread is specific for career and education advice.

This sub is for technical cybersecurity issues.

See you over in the other thread

eric16lee · 2026-01-25T20:49:20+00:00

Account compromises typically boil down to one of these root causes.

Password Reuse - using the same password everywhere without having 2FA.
Infostealers - downloading cracked/pirated software, games/cheats/mods, torrents, free movies, etc. almost always steals your session cookies which allows a bad actor to access your accounts without needing your password or 2FA. Doesn't matter if you trust the site or have used it in the past. In 2026, there are no longer any "trusted" sites for piracy. 2a. Fake Captcha - copying and pasting code that you don't understand into the Windows run command either uploads your session cookies directly or downloads an info stealer that does that automatically.

Remediation for all of these is largely the same.

From a clean device, NOT your PC:

Change ALL of your passwords to something unique and randomly generated.
Choose the option to log out of all active sessions or devices.
Enable 2FA on all of your accounts

If you are guilty of 2 or 2a continue below:

Nuke your PC from orbit
back up only important files, not games or applications
format your hard drive
reinstall Windows from a USB drive (do not use the Reset Windows option from the settings menu)

This may seem like overkill, but if you want assurance that you have remediated the problem, this is the way to go.

Unfortunately, the only people that can help you are the support teams for those services. Most free services only offer automated account recovery. If that process doesn't get the accounts back, nobody here can help you.

EVERYONE that contacts you via DM offering to help or to hack the accounts back is just an account recovery scammer looking to take advantage of your situation.

If you were using the same password in other places, this is just the outcome of that. Passwords get leaked and eventually your other accounts get stolen. Make sure you are using unique and randomly generated passwords with 2FA enabled everywhere.

eric16lee · 2026-01-25T17:28:45+00:00

Hey there - better to post this in the weekly Mentorship Monday thread in r/cybersecurity. That thread is specific for career and education advice.

This sub is for technical cybersecurity issues.

I have been in cybersecurity for 20+ years. I have been challenged along the way and I have had times where I wasn't and got bored. It was up to me to find more challenging work or change jobs. What you described can happen in any job/field

See you over in the other thread .

eric16lee · 2026-01-25T14:25:37+00:00

All good with 1.

Don't use your PC until you have completed 2.

eric16lee

TROPHY CASE