**Disclaimer: Please note, I am not affiliated with Pinterest, nor do I pretend to be. All opinions and fixes are my own experience. If you’ve been hacked, I hope this helps.**
Has your Pinterest account been hacked? Last week my Pinterest account was hacked. If you follow me you know Pinterest and I are like BFFs. Having my account hacked was unnerving and, quite frankly, slightly scary for me. After all, with just a few clicks, all my 2,000+ pins would be GONE. Like, completely gone. Something I put hours upon hours into could be wiped out in no time flat. I am not the only victim. Many people I know have been hacked over the past week. Are you one of them? No? Are you sure? Listen Read up. I am here to tell you how to find out if you’ve been Pinterest Hacked.
Have I Been Hacked?
- Check your profile name. Is it the same as what you signed up with?
- If you have an “about me” with your profile, is it still there? Has it been changed?
- If you linked up a website to your profile has it changed? Is it still linking to your site?
- Location, location, location. Mine said Paris. Try again. I may dream of France but I’ve never been.
- Click the button that shows your boards. Scan them. Are they all ones YOU started? My “hacker board” was added to the bottom of my boards.
- Click the button that shows all however many pins you ever pinned. Are there any that you cannot imagine ever having pinned?
How to fix a Hack
- Change your password. I am no expert on this next advise but if you log in with another account (Twitter or Facebook) I recommend changing that password also. Doesn’t hurt to be safe.
- Go into your profile and change all the information back to your own information.
- Delete spammy boards and/or pins.
- If you have pins go to Facebook or Twitter when you post them – EVER – go to Facebook and Twitter and find the tweets and FB posts the spammer likely pushed their spammy pin through.
- If you have a website linked to your Pinterest and it was verified, hate to tell you that you will have to re-verify it.
Fixed the Hack. Now what?
- Now you get to be paranoid that it’s going to happen…again…and again…and again.
- Make yourself a cup of coffee, tea, hot cocoa or have a glass of wine.
- Start pinning again.
- Change your password every 10 minutes until you feel “safe”.
- Welcome to the internet. Now let’s figure out how to bring these hackers down.
I just had the identical things happen to me and my Pinterest Account: location said Paris, an advertising link in place of my bio and website, a skin care board at the bottom of my boards list. It’s incredibly sad that unscrupulous companies are so desperate for traffic that they resort to destroying and hijacking our hard work, when they could just put in legitimate time and earn traffic legitimately. Thanks for your post. It helps tremendously to not feel like I’m the only one.
Best,
Heather
I am so glad it helps. It is so frustrating. Easier to make money by being unethical I guess. Stinks for the rest of us who work hard for every penny.
This happened to me just last week! I was also from Paris(in my dreams). The thing that tipped me off was a skin care pin that showed up on my Facebook that was pinned while I was cleaning. Did all the things you recommended. Very sad that this is the new scare…after all I’ve spent hours on my pins! Lol
I know. It’s stressful.
I was from Paris too! And apparently I have a weird website as well.
Hey- you don’t know me, but I followed your instructions after I was hacked yesterday. Thank you! I also linked your blog post up on facebook, because I have several friends who were hacked as well, and felt like your instructions were better than me copying and pasting what I did a million times. Hope you don’t mind! Thank you again!
Thank you for letting me know I was able to help. Definitely no problem with sharing the link.
Apparently I am also from Paris…in another life. I knew I knew you from somewhere 🙂
Mine was hacked under a second pinterest account that I recently started and only had about 50 pins. I thought I had cleared it, but when I read about adding boards I went just now and checked and sure enough there was a make money at home board. I am just glad my other account with 6000+ pins did not get hacked.
So great to “see you again. ;)It is panic inducing, isn’t it?
I’ve heard about this happening to so many people. Thanks for the great advice. I’m checking and rechecking every day!
I am still so nervous. I keep checking it – every single thing.