JoCat

How I got hacked on discord and how you can avoid it happening to you (I got it back now tho)

Duration: 4:53 860 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

Joe Cat begins his update by expressing deep gratitude to the community for their relentless efforts in helping him recover both his Google email and Discord account after a serious security breach. He shares personal items as proof of his identity, including photos of Gabo plushies, his wedding ring with Echo, Fan Fest memorabilia from his Final Fantasy XIV character Victor, and even a copy of Bird Haven gifted to him by Shen. Despite the chaos caused by the hack, which included unauthorized charges on PayPal that he was able to cancel, Joe emphasizes how crucial it was for viewers to reach out via Blue Sky and other platforms to escalate the issue with Discord support until his accounts were restored. The core of the incident occurred when a trusted fellow VTuber named Booby Queen sent him an innocent message proposing a Minecraft collaboration or video hangout. Trusting her completely, Joe installed a mod pack she provided without suspicion, unaware that this was actually a malicious payload designed to compromise his system. As soon as he ran the file, it harvested his Discord and browser cookies, allowing hackers to take full control of his accounts, change passwords, and even access his Twitter alt account where he had initially reported the breach. This method highlights how easily attackers can exploit trust within close-knit creator communities by disguising malware under the guise of friendly collaboration requests from known figures. To prevent others from falling victim to similar attacks, Joe offers several critical safety tips centered on verifying identities and avoiding suspicious downloads regardless of who sends them. He strongly advises against installing any files or mods sent via direct messages, even if they come from people you know well, as their accounts could be compromised without the owners' knowledge. Additionally, he suggests asking simple identifying questions before engaging in voice chats or real-time interactions to ensure the person on the other end is genuine, citing an example where another creator named Felix successfully avoided a scam by confirming his wife's name with someone claiming to be Dingo Doodles' husband. In conclusion, Joe apologizes sincerely for any confusion caused during this ordeal and thanks everyone who helped verify his identity or simply chose not to click on suspicious links. He hopes that Booby Queen can also recover her account soon and reiterates the importance of staying vigilant in an increasingly digital world where threats often hide behind familiar faces. His message serves as a stark reminder that no amount of trust should override basic security precautions, urging all viewers to remain safe by double-checking requests and never downloading unknown content from anyone online.

Read the full video transcript

It's Joe, the actual Joe, the real Joe Cat, and I've got my Discord account back, thankfully, thanks to everyone working very hard to recover my email over at Google, everyone who reached out to people at Discord. Thank you so, so much for all of your effort and and willingness to do that for me. I don't know what I would have done without your assistance and you know, pushing this and escalating this. Uh I have my email back. I have my Discord back. Here is Gabo. This is a Gabo plush that doesn't exist yet. This is the only one in the world right now. Um it will exist soon for you to purchase, but that I'm not here to advertise. This is just for confirmation. Here's my ring that I'm married to my beautiful wife Echo. Here is my Fan Fest card for Victor, my Final Fantasy XIV character Victor. I gave this to some of you at Fan Fest. Here's my Fan Fest, you know, card stuff that I got from people and the the sticker book. And here's a copy of Bird Haven, a physical copy of Bird Haven Shen gave me, including a page that there was misprinted uh that I can't find right now, but you know, more identifying confirmation that it is me. It is actually me. I got my account back now and why I'm recording this. And lastly, of course, Muffin, my dog, who no one can recreate how stinky she is. Don't mind the mess. I've been sleeping in here because I didn't want to be too far away from my computer. Just making sure to go through all the nonsense to get this back. But you might wonder, how did this happen? And I'm going to tell you so you know what to look for and how to avoid it. This is Booby Queen. This is a fellow VTuber that I'm on good terms with. I would say good acquaintances. I watch her sometimes. And she reached out with an innocuous message just to play Minecraft. Collab happened, I thought. I was like, "Oh, cool. I like Booby Queen. She's cool." I even made her some art. She had a cameo in my Japan video. I'm happy to join. And she this impostor sent me a download full of a mod pack for me to install. Now, this is someone that I trusted, of course, and I presume that her account is compromised as well, but this is how they got me. I thought this was just an innocent asked to collab on some sort of screenshot thing or video or or hangout or whatever. And then I installed the mod, and as soon as I did, it took over it what I presume it fed my uh Discord and um kind of browser cookies to this malicious party, and that's how they were able to log in to all of my stuff and basically change my emails and and passwords and stuff. You can see I've redacted the the thing, but this was the email to change the email to my Discord, and that's how they were able to gain access to it. They did the same for my Twitter. Uh this is my 14 alt Twitter, where I messaged Team YouTube telling them about my compromised account, and they even compromised this account, because then they said, "Never mind, I fixed it." and then logged me out here as well. Which I had to quickly try and recover that. And thank you everyone who who got involved to help me with that as well. Um but yeah, and just here are some messages I believe the hacker confirming that the hack worked. I am so sorry everyone that I messaged. I've sent everyone that I could some video confirmation that it is the real me, but who knows how much damage this has done, and I'm so so sorry for involving anybody and and messaging anybody because of this, but I have it back now. Please please stay safe. Um do not download anything uh even from trusted people. Uh i- if you need need to ask for voice chat, like a video or anything that requires you to interact them with them in real time. Um, let's see. Uh, Felix, uh, husband of Dingo Doodles was very smart and asked an identifying question as to what his wife's name is in order to know that it wasn't me. So, you know, double-checking in that way is also smart. But, um, yeah, please stay safe everybody, and I hope Boobie Queen can get her account back. It's just really, really scary. Uh, they charged a random thing on my account on my PayPal that I was able to cancel, but yeah, please, please stay safe. I'm sorry again for all of this inconvenience. Thank you all for making a ruckus about this. Everyone who reached out on Blue Sky and double-checked, and everyone who was smart enough to not click any links. Um, sorry about this scare. Um, new video out hopefully tomorrow. Thank you.