Another Unexpected Turn of Events
Hey everyone!
It’s been a while but I’m back with a new update. I had a few neat things I was working on that I was excited to reveal and talk about. Unfortunately, the world had other plans and decided to throw yet another major curveball at me. I hinted at this in the title, but all puns aside, this isn’t really a joking matter. Simply put…
…My instagram account was hacked and hijacked from me.
Yes, I fell victim to the ever growing epidemic of scammers and hackers. Now normally I’m very good at weeding out a potential scammer/hacker, but this particular person hit me where I’m most empathetic. They posed as a fellow artist struggling to be seen and acknowledged. My red flags didn’t go up at first because this person communicated in such a way that felt like a real person with a genuine issue looking for fellow support in the community. As an artist currently in that place, I understand the pain and struggle to get out there and be truly appreciated.
So after a bit of back and forth chatting, they send me a link to an art contest asking if I can help them out and vote for their work. Right there the alarm bells should have been going off, but again, I was blinded by the empathy I felt having personally dealt with similar things. So I clicked on the link. As soon as I did though, I noticed the site was fishy. I used no names for anything, only referring to the artist by number and generic descriptions. Also, certain links and buttons that would work on legitimate sites were not here. So I left without entering any sort of information that would give them access to my account. But I guess these hackers are more cunning than I thought, because they must have had a way to get it regardless. Simply clicking the link was enough. I thought little of it at the time. However I woke up the next day to a notice that my email was changed and I couldn’t log in anymore. Followed by a series of “support” emails stating that if the account couldn’t be recovered then I’d need to pay $600 to get it back. At that point things were too far gone and I couldn’t get it back.
I lost all the progress and connections to fellow artists I made on that site. Gone in an instant. What stings more is that it should’ve been preventable, but the empathy clouded my judgement. So I had to live with the consequences here.
I had to start all over again. From the beginning with zero followers. Completely demoralized. Needless to say, I was feeling really down and unsure if I’d be able to recover. I say that because I started that account almost ten years ago and I had only connected with 360 people. So of course I’m thinking to myself that this will be difficult to come back from. I struggled immensely just to get to where I was at, and even then that’s not really a whole lot. Some people get that many followers in mere hours. That’s not how it has been for me. I’ve had to really work hard to connect with the 360 people I had. Now they’re gone and I have to try and work my way back. But I don’t have another ten years to get there. I can’t do that again. I had to try a different approach.
So I reached out to as many of my fellow artists as I could and explained my situation to them. What caught me by surprise was the overwhelming support they all gave me. Many of them were almost complete strangers to me, yet they helped me out and spread the word. I am incredibly grateful and humbled by that.
Since this event happened, I’m only a fraction closer to where I was, but I’ve made way more meaningful connections with artists now than I had before. So even though I’m still setback a lot, it feels like I have more. Perhaps by starting over, I’ve weeded out the “bots” and “ghosts” and instead found myself becoming closer with actual people with likeminded interests.
Maybe being hacked wasn’t a bad thing. Maybe it’s exactly what I needed. A fresh start.
So that’s where things stand now on that front. I’ve been focusing more on getting back the small audience I had over there. Some good news that hasn’t changed is I want to announce that I will have an artist table one again at Comicopolis at the White Oak Library in Lockport, IL on July 29th. I wanted to participate in many more conventions, but with being in the first year of a new full time job, I wasn’t able to stay on top of that for this year. I’m happy I was able to at least book this one and then after it I will keep an eye out for others to join for next year. I really enjoyed the convention scene and I want to get back into that soon.
Well if you made it this far, thank you for reading and hearing my troubles lately. My entire art career has been littered with struggles. Those close to me can attest to that. However, I’m learning quickly that no matter what happens you cannot give up when things like this happening. Not when it’s something that is important and you’re passionate about.
The comeback will be far greater than the setback!
Keep Moving Forward
The Art of David Stankowicz 