When Your Identity Has Been Hacked

I picked up my daughter-in-love’s phone call. “I think you need to check your blog. Your website has been hacked.”

I raced to my laptop and pulled up my blog, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

“No, NO, NO!!!!” I screamed. My daughter scrambled down the stairs. “What’s wrong, Mom?”

Plastered across my blog pages were unknown pictures accompanied by a foreign language. Remnants of my original site were still there, but my entire livelihood had been taken over by an identity thief. A decade’s worth of stories stolen. I attempted to log in, but my password had been changed and the liars renamed it as their own.

Right out from under me, a master manipulator bulldozed his way into my life and uprooted decades of memories and milestones. In full-on panic mode, my body responded in a visceral way.

Why would someone do this to me? Who can I call to help right this wrong? I felt violated, angry, helpless, and foolish. I didn’t know where to turn. It took months to unravel that violation and devastated the income my family relied on.

Identity thieves are crafty, cunning, and quick. They examine our weaknesses and know exactly how to exploit them. While I’ve installed safeguards that alert me to fraud, the attacks have continued through the years — but I’m prepared now to fight back.

Many of us can relate to that panicked moment when something precious has been stolen. It may not be a blog hack, but perhaps a wallet or social security number. Maybe your Facebook or email account was hijacked, and you found yourself held hostage by deception.

When that occurs, we spend hours, even weeks, alerting people to the fraud. We show multiple forms of proof of who we really are. We track down expenses, close accounts, and shout from the rooftop that’s not our true identity.

When our identity is finally restored, money returned, systems secured, and passwords reestablished, we regain access to the freedoms and security we had lost. Then our anxiety lifts and relief floods in.

I still remember when my first hack occurred, how I spent all my energy fighting back against this invisible enemy until my identity had been secured. Yet I can’t remember the last time I fought that hard against the most cunning of all identity thieves. Why don’t we put that same effort into exposing Satan’s strategies?

There are two realms. The seen and the unseen. The physical and the spiritual. Good vs. evil.

Jesus reminds us, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10 NIV).

Yet we allow Satan to boss us around. He bullies his way into our hearts and minds, planting seeds of doubt, deception, shame, and inadequacy because his whole desire is to steal our true identity and discount our esteemed value as beloved daughters, image bearers of the Most High God.

Last week, our young adult daughter fell victim to an elaborate identity scam.

“You have no idea how believable it was, Mom. They knew years of my personal information. They knew all of my history. I was exhausted and my guard was down.”

Torn between rage at the thief and frustration that we so easily fall prey to lies, I realized the difference between my blog hack years ago and our daughter’s identity theft: She pleaded for help to fight this battle.

In full momma bear mode, I knew how these counterfeiters worked. I understood the opponent’s ultimate goal and stepped into battle on her behalf. We laid down truth and put up guard rails together.

Friends, we must learn to fight back against the devil’s schemes with the same dogged determination. Satan knows our struggles and focuses on our past sin patterns. He wants us to live in our flesh and replay past hurt.

As we wrestle with doubt, the enemy will mimic our voice. He’ll say things to us in a way that sounds like us. A young mom shared an example of this with me: “My husband deserves someone more whole and healed. I can’t conquer [past struggles]. I’m never going to be the mom our son deserves.”

I stopped her, identified the first-person lies Satan taunted her with, and told her that this was not God’s truth for her life. I said out loud as a reminder to both of us that our new birth in Christ is what determines our identity. When we name Jesus as Lord, the gift of the gospel is that God restores our identity as His children. How dare we give the enemy an inch when we have the indwelling, life-giving, enemy-crushing, abundant freedom of new life.

Satan has no hold on us — but when it comes to dealing with all identity thieves, complacency is not an option.

Peter talks about having “minds ready for action ” (1 Peter 1:13 CSB). In the original Greek, the verb is continuous and active, meaning this isn’t a one-time effort. It’s a daily commitment to stay alert and to keep preparing our minds for the challenges and battles we’ll face along the way.

Are we rooted in the truth of Scripture? Do we have others to come alongside us? Are we stretching our minds by becoming critical thinkers? All those are necessary to be battle-ready.

Our daughter now pays $10 a month to a company that alerts her to fraud. A small price for freedom.

Don’t we all desire to live in the true freedom that Christ offers? Then together, let’s agree to fight back against Satan’s identity theft.