What Happens When You Get Hacked? - Real Consequences and What to Do

About 10 min read

What actually happens when your account gets hacked? Many students think "it will never happen to me," but hacking incidents among teens are increasing every year. Your game accounts, social media, and smartphone - all of these can be targeted. This article explains in simple terms what damage occurs when you get hacked, real cases that happened to students just like you, and what to do if it happens. Knowing about threats like malware and ransomware can help you protect yourself before it is too late.

What Happens When You Get Hacked?

The Damage of Account Takeover

The most common damage from hacking is "account takeover." When your account is taken over, posts you never wrote start appearing on your social media. Suspicious ads and links to scam sites get spread under your name. Your friends think "you posted it" and click the links, causing the damage to spread like a chain reaction. Social media account hijacking is an especially serious problem, and it is important to learn about how SNS hijacking works and how to prevent it in advance.

Even more serious is the leak of personal information. Your email address, phone number, home address, credit card details - all the information registered to your account could be stolen. For game accounts, items you spent thousands of yen collecting through in-app purchases can vanish in an instant. Items you paid real money for get sold to strangers or transferred to other accounts without your permission. Your friends receive floods of spam messages, and you risk losing their trust when they think "that person sent me weird messages."

When Your Smartphone Gets a Virus

Symptoms and Damage of Virus Infection

When your smartphone gets infected with malware (malicious software), several telltale symptoms appear. The easiest to notice is abnormal battery drain. Malware runs constantly in the background, so your battery drains noticeably faster than usual. If you fully charge your phone in the morning and it is already below 20% by early afternoon, that is a warning sign.

Next, you might find apps you never installed appearing on your phone. Malware downloads and installs other apps on its own. Another typical symptom is ads suddenly popping up even when you are not using a browser, or websites opening by themselves. The scariest part is the invisible damage. Your contacts, photos, message contents, location data, and passwords you typed could be secretly sent to external servers without you knowing. In more severe cases, your device could be hit by ransomware, which holds your data hostage and demands payment. Since smartphones contain our entire lives, the damage from infection can be far greater than you might imagine.

Real Examples of Hacking Damage

Real Cases That Happened to Students

One middle school student had their popular online game account taken over. The cause was entering their ID and password on a fake site disguised as a game walkthrough site. By the time they noticed, all the in-app purchase items they had collected over two years had been transferred to another account. They contacted the game company, but were told "we cannot verify your identity" and could not get their items back, losing tens of thousands of yen worth of items.

In another case, a high school student's social media account was taken over, and scam messages saying "please transfer money urgently" were sent to all their friends. Several friends believed it was really them and transferred money, leading to a major incident. The cause of the takeover was reusing the same password across multiple services. A password leaked from one service, and the attacker used it to log into their social media as well.

There are also cases where students were victimized while using free WiFi at cafes and fast food restaurants. When they logged into accounts while connected to unencrypted WiFi, their communications were intercepted and their passwords were stolen. Free WiFi is convenient, but any operation that requires entering passwords or logging in should always be done after switching to mobile data (4G/5G).

What to Do When You Get Hacked

5 Steps You Should Take Right Now

If you realize you have been hacked, do not panic. Stay calm and follow these steps. Quick and accurate incident response is the key to minimizing damage.

1. Change your password immediately - If you can still log into the compromised account, change the password first. Make the new password a strong one with 12 or more characters that you have never used before. Also change passwords on all other services where you used the same password.
2. Enable two-step verification - After changing your password, set up two-step verification right away. This way, even if your password leaks again, nobody can log in without your phone. Using an authenticator app like Google Authenticator is the safest option.
3. Check for suspicious login history - Most services have a feature to check login history. Go to "Security" or "Login Activity" in your settings and check for logins from unknown locations or devices. If you find suspicious sessions, log them all out.
4. Tell your friends about the takeover - If your social media was taken over, spam or scam messages may have been sent to your friends. Use a different communication method (LINE, phone call, etc.) to tell your friends "my account was hacked, so please ignore any messages from me." You might feel embarrassed, but it is important to protect your friends from becoming victims too. For a more comprehensive guide on handling serious incidents, see our personal incident response guide.
5. Factory reset your device if necessary - If you suspect your smartphone is infected with malware, consider factory resetting it (restoring it to its original state). Before resetting, back up important photos and data to the cloud or another device. After resetting, only reinstall apps you trust, and log back into all accounts with new passwords.

What You Can Do Right Now

1. Open your phone's app list and check for any apps you do not remember installing. Delete them immediately if you find any
2. Check the login history of services you use often (social media, games, email) and look for access from unknown devices
3. Check if two-step verification is turned on for your important accounts (Google, social media). If not, set it up right now
4. Generate strong passwords with Passtsuku.com and change any reused passwords to unique ones for each service

If you want to learn more about protecting yourself online, beginner guides to cybersecurity (Amazon) can help you understand the bigger picture.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I tell if I have been hacked?

There are several signs. Posts or messages you did not write are being sent, your password was changed and you cannot log in, there are login records from unknown locations, your phone battery drains abnormally fast, or unknown apps are installed. If you notice even one of these symptoms, suspect hacking. Change your password immediately and enable two-step verification.

Is changing my password enough?

Changing your password is the first step, but it is not enough by itself. You also need to change passwords on all other services where you used the same one. Additionally, enabling two-step verification can prevent damage even if your password leaks again. If your phone has malware, changing your password will just get it stolen again, so make sure your device is safe too. You may need to delete suspicious apps or even factory reset your device.

Should I report it to the police?

If you suffered financial damage or a large amount of personal information was leaked, reporting to the police is recommended. In Japan, each prefectural police has a "Cybercrime Consultation Desk." You can also consult the IPA (Information-technology Promotion Agency) "Information Security Consultation Desk." If you are a minor, first talk to your parents or a teacher at school. It is important not to deal with it alone and to get help from adults.