Players are constantly complaining that their account has been 'hacked'. So, to clear some things up I am copying what Spartacus posed in the General Forum right here with her permission. I know it is long, but it is also very important, so please read it all.

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COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

HACKING does not automatically equal SOMEONE ELSE ON YOUR ACCOUNT.

Hacking is a serious skill set. It's very hard, and very tricky. And unethical hacking is also very illegal. There are *felonies* associated with hacking. There are also more profitable things to hack than your random horse isle account; bank accounts, for example. Someone is not going to waste time hacking your account for a fake horse and some fake bucks on a kid's game.

NOW. That's not to say someone else can't get on your account. They can. Easily, if you let them. Here are a few possibilities:

1) You gave someone your password. This could be so they could do your minigames for you, so they could babysit your account while you were on vacation, you're sharing an account, etc. It could also be because you used the same password as your mail account or some other website account and you told someone those passwords.

2) You told someone enough for them to guess your password. If your password is Sophie95, and your dog's name is Sophie, and you were born in 1995, don't say that in conversation! No information leading to your password should ever cross your lips or be typed by your hands, and if it's something family or friends would already know, don't use it as your password!

3) Your password was something even a stranger could guess. This is Horse Isle. Do not make your password horseisle1, mypassword, or ilovehorses. Do. Not. Do. It. "password" is the most commonly used password ever, closely followed by "password1". Do not name your horse something similar to your password. And do NOT NOT NOT use ANYTHING like your password for your account name.

4) You were scammed. That is, you told someone your password, but didn't mean to. Here are the top two most common scams I have ever seen: Scam #1: Someone says in chat "Type your password and it shows up like this! *****" Oftentimes websites won't allow you to type your pass [You cannot type your password in chat on this game], so they'll tell you to type it backwards. They'll try to convince you it works by saying "See? *****", and they may use multiple accounts to convince you it works for other people. NEVER EVER EVER GIVE SOMEONE YOUR PASSWORD EVER EVER EVER. This person already has a window open for changing your password on your account. It will only take him a second. NEVER EVER EVER GIVE SOMEONE YOUR PASSWORD. Scam #2 is trickier but not that possible on HI: Someone makes a website exactly like another website's log in page, only the form secretly redirects to their email. DO NOT PUT YOUR PASSWORD ON A PAGE OTHER THAN HORSEISLE.COM. CHECK THE ADDRESS BAR. This is exceedingly easy to do. I have done it to copy over newspaper articles from a website that's gone down. CHECK THE ADDRESS BARS OF YOUR LOG IN PAGES. There are many many other scams that steal your password. Don't fall for them!

5) Someone got in your electronic mail account. Now, mail accounts ARE something that would be targeted, so make sure your password there is VERY secure, that you never let someone else on it, and that you don't leave random "Your account is now created at ------! Your username is ---- and your password is -----!" mails in it. Delete these always.

6) There is a slight chance your system picked up a trojan. The chances of this happening without your Virus Scan noticing it are small, IF your anti-virus protection is up to date. Make sure (or get your parents to make sure) that your antivirus definitions are always updated on time. Mind you, if this is what happened, Horse Isle is your VERY LAST CONCERN, because this involves banking information, possible identity theft, etc.

You will not be hacked on HI. You just won't. That doesn't mean you don't have to be careful.

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Thanks to Spartacus for this thorough explanation. Hopefully this will help many of you to safeguard your passwords so others will not get on your account.
Thanks!
-Miranda