My personal Pinterest account was hacked last month. Over the last 6 months, there seems to be a significant rise in Pinterest spam and account hacks. Why are so many accounts being hacked? Hackers see the great potential for reach on Pinterest, and many people have passwords that are too simple or use the same password across multiple accounts, which can lead to problems if any of those accounts are compromised. SplashData published a list of the top 25 most common passwords for 2013. Is your Pinterest password on that list? The best way to prevent hacking is to create a strong password. If you ever think your Pinterest account might have been hacked, change your password right away.
Photo via TheNextWeb
Your account is definitely hacked, now what?!
1) Login.
2) Change your password immediately.
3) Check for new pins.
4) Revoke Twitter & Facebook connections (just to be safe) and then reconnect.
5) Check & fix profile description, location, and website if needed.
Hackers using accounts to send spam-related pins is a new and effective tactic that has become a bigger problem over the past year. To combat this, Pinterest has put strict limits on sending pins and on how quickly accounts can be followed. As Pinterest drives more traffic to external sites, hackers see a chance to tap into large markets and are putting more effort into hacking Pinterest accounts. Spammers access these markets by hacking accounts and pinning, Tweeting the pins, or posting them on Facebook. They modify the pin URLs to direct users to spam sites, add spam pins to group boards, and share pins with links to malware.
When you get a pin sent to you, always check the URL before repinning or clicking!
How to avoid being hacked
– Have a strong password.
– Report every spam pin you see. This helps prevent more spam pins from circulating.
– Change your password every so often.
– Have a different password for your Pinterest than anything else.
What to do if you think you’ve been hacked
1. Change password immediately.
~ Do this by clicking on your name at the top right, going to settings, and it’s the 2nd option.
2. Check your profile for recently pinned spam pins, report them, and delete them.
3. If your Pinterest is connected to your Twitter or Facebook, disconnect the accounts from your Pinterest and then reconnect, just to be safe.
4. Ask friends if they’ve received any “sent pins” from you recently (that you didn’t send).
~ Spammers use the Send Pin feature because it has a higher chance of someone opening the link and clicking through the pin because they have the perception it was sent from a friend they trust.
~ Always check the URL before clicking any pin and if you ever see a spam pin, report it right away.
5. Edit your profile information.
~ Make sure your description, website, and location are back to how they were before.
~ Many hacked accounts will have URLs as their description without any other information (see my hacked account screenshot below). I definitely don’t live in Paris (a girl can dream) and that is not my website. If your account is hacked, make sure nothing on your profile info has changed.
My account was hacked last month and all of my profile info was changed!
Need help? See this helpful video by Karen Clark giving visual steps on how to do these things.
See Pinterest’s recommendations for what to do when your account might have been compromised. Have a different or more specific question? See Pinterest’s Help site for more answers and tips.