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TIFU by ignoring my Reddit account for 11 years

So I got an email this morning that absolutely gave me a heart attack! "Your Reddit email address has been changed."

I didn't change anything. I panicked immediately.

Turns out someone had hacked into my old Reddit account, [u/vashmel](u/vashmel), and changed the email to some random sketchy address. The thing is, I completely forgot this account even existed. I've been using a different Reddit account for years.

I clicked the recovery link in the email, set a new password, and got the account back in like 10 minutes flat. Crisis averted.

Then I actually looked at this account I just fought to recover.

3 karma. THREE. Last post was 7 years ago. The one before that was 12 years ago. I was apparently very passionate about Dota 2 loot boxes in 2014 and then completely disappeared.

But here's the kicker — the account has an 11-Year Club trophy. And Reddit apparently made it an Elder in 36 subreddits I don't even remember joining. Turns out Reddit auto-subscribed every new account to default subs back in 2014.

So why did anyone bother hacking this dusty ghost account? Apparently old aged accounts are valuable on black markets for astroturfing and disinformation campaigns. The account age and organic post history matters more than karma.

I had accidentally created the perfect sleeper asset by doing absolutely nothing for 11 years.

Got it appraised. Worth about $20.

TL;DR: Got hacked, recovered my account in minutes, found out my 11 years of laziness is worth a Jollibee family meal.

EDIT: 17% upvote ratio. The hackers found the post.

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