My account was possibly hacked and my username was changed
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So, I hadn’t used my WordPress account in a long time.
I went to log back in recently and discovered that my username had been changed to
sharklasers7676
It was weird.
And then I went to change my username back to what it was originally and it said that I couldn’t and that the username was already taken. What do I do?
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IMPORTANT: If any person or any bot is posting anything to your blog or deleting content from it or has deleted the blog, then you have provided them with the ability to do so either deliberately by adding them as official users, or by allowing them access to your login information, or by posting content that makes it easy for them to guess what your log-in information is.
Who, aside from you, has access to your login information?
Go to your email program and change the password to a very difficult one because that’s how many hackers gain access to blogs
Change your blog password to a very difficult one > http://en.support.wordpress.com/passwords/#change-your-passwordUse a secure, encrypted connection to connect to your Dashboard. Under Users → Personal Settings, check the box that says “Always use HTTPS when visiting administration pages, and click Save Changes.
Set up two step authentication http://en.support.wordpress.com/security/two-step-authentication/
Then read and act on this please http://en.support.wordpress.com/security/
P.S. I flagged this for Staff follow-up. Please subscribe to the thread so you are notified when they respond and please be patient while waiting. Read also http://en.support.wordpress.com/export/#backups
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Okay. All of this security stuff is helpful and I’ll look into it. Honestly, I just want to get my username back to what it was since I didn’t purposely delete it. I know WordPress says you can “never” get it back, but I think they should make an exception for this situation. I didn’t add any other users. My email was hacked awhile back, so it could have happened then.
Fortunately, I wasn’t really using WordPress to post anything, so I didn’t lose much other than my username, but I would like it back.
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A long time ago there was an issue when someone used someone else’s gmail account to sign up. Not sure if this is the case now, but you should be able to go to your Dashboard Profile page and change the Nickname there. That will be your display name everywhere but the forums and dashboard.
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I know how to change the nickname — I would like to change the username back to what it was, though.
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Hey there!
I’ve sent you a private email to sort this out. Please follow up with me there.
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