I don’t even know how to start this topic, but my Facebook personal account has been hacked and I am now completely blocked from messenger, my business page, and Instagram. I thought it was a scam, but it turned out that someone got into my personal profile and posted something that was in violation of community standards so they blocked my profile straight away. While I have no problem with that as they didn’t know who I was and that the person who posted was a hacker, my problem is that while I was blocked (and still am) and couldn’t do anything with my profile nor access any help center or whatsoever, the hacker managed to set up some ads and one of them was accepted. All the following ads were rejected but I got a £40 invoice for one of them. Luckily, I managed to unlink my PayPal account just in time so no money was taken from my account, and of course, I will not pay the outstanding money.
I do understand that they have to be vigilant and if something is not right, they should block the accounts but what I don’t understand is how on earth there was still some kind of activity on my account? There isn’t any support available to speak to a real person or a telephone number. I tried to appeal it, but it is still blocked with no response from them.
I wasn’t very active on my personal account so I am not too bothered about it, but I worked very hard to build up my Facebook page and Instagram and now they are completely gone. I don’t think they are going to restore it as the photo that the hacker was trying to post is very bad. I have never got any chance to see it and report it myself, nor the chance to report a hack or unusual activity as they just blocked everything straight away.
It is very hard to warn people about this because, in my case, I didn’t get any chance to do anything and I had no support from Facebook at all. It simply just happened!! I have reported it to cybercrime and I can say that I am lucky for not losing any money but I found this blog post with something similar and I was horrified by how much money people lost and the lack of support.
I am so disappointed at the moment that I don’t feel like trying to open another account and build my pages from scratch. I know that I had really bad luck with this and I am just one number out of hundreds or more who probably went through the same thing at the same time as me and it probably won’t happen again, but I am very disappointed by the complete lack of support from FB.
I am sorry for the long post; I may write a blog about this experience through…
Oh this is awful. It is shocking that this has been going on so long too. I noticed the link you put up is dated 2020! You would think this would be a top priority to stop hackers. Thank you for the heads up on this too.
Best wishes to you going forward whatever you decide to do. x
What a horrid experience and thank you for posting. I do know that Facebook is notoriously hard to reach if there is any problem. I just hope that Facebook get better at dealing with this sort of thing and realise there are innocent people getting hacked (and subsequently disconnected) more and more often. We need to be persistent in reporting problems to internet service providers so that they ‘up there game’ before the problem gets much worse.
What a terrible thing to happen! So sorry for the hassle it has caused you.
I’m wondering whether to bother keeping my facebook page at all, as the reach on my posts rarely makes double figures despite hundreds of followers. I never use fb personal account, so going on there to create a post is just another chore. The thought that someone might hack in and put nasty stuff there, or to spend my money, is pretty scary.
I’m so sorry this has happened to you. I hope you can get them back somehow. I’ve seen an increasing number of people say their accounts have been hacked. It’s prompted me to set up two factor identification for Facebook and Instagram.
I’ve often wondered whether to keep Facebook too. I don’t really use it much for personal stuff and since the page reach is now pants I just share my Instagram posts to it. I know Instagram is owned by Facebook (now meta) but I much prefer Instagram.
What a nightmare for you
I’ve just gone back to Facebook after abandoning it for a few years - I’ll make sure my passwords and authentication is secure after reading this. Good luck Teodora, whatever you do about building up socials again (Pinterest?!)
Yes, I agree. That’s why I reported it because if it’s not reported, then it isn’t a crime. I know that the chances for the person/organization to be caught are minimal, but if we all report it, then they may at least make it more secure for users.
This is a good idea. I am not sure I want to open a new one, but I used messenger to speak to my mum and other close friends so I might set up a new one and keep it as private as possible just to be able to communicate with some close people, nothing more.
This is a very good idea. I opened another Instagram at the moment because I quite like being on there and the interaction I had (I have to build everything from scratch now) and I set up a two-factor identification. I did it to my google and Paypal accounts as well.
Thank you. I started a new Instagram page from scratch and yes, I have Pinterest as well but I don’t really understand it. I do have lots of boards on there but not sure how to interact with others. Something to explore in the future.
Same with me - I know there’s lots more I could be doing with social media but I just don’t seem to have time to explore all the things I should be doing - I suppose I’ll get there in the end.
Another scary thought (sorry) - there are many websites including Folksy where you can sign on using your Facebook. If a hacker takes over your FB does this mean they can then get access to those other sites too?
Yes, that’s very scary, indeed. But just a reassurance that I got logged out straight away from all websites where I normally log in with FB and I can’t get back unless I use my normal username and password.
I think that with this hacking, there is a window or a glitch in the system that the hackers know about so between posting a nasty photo and being completely blocked, they managed to do their scam. It looks like this is what they do: they post something nasty to make sure the account will be blocked so the owner can’t get in and they will move very quickly to set up some adverts to make people click on something that probably would have taken them to some kind of scam website. The product looked quite innocent as it seems like they were trying to sell sewing machines, but not sure where would the website have taken you if you clicked on it. They looked like they were from China. I was able to see this on the invoice I got from FB.
I was probably just a random name that came up in their search and, indeed, very unlucky. I have been using my FB account since 2008 and my page since 2010 with no problem. Based on this, I would definitely recommend a two-factor authentification. I implemented this to all my online websites now, just to be on the safe side and I will change my passwords more often. Another piece of advice would be to add a second admin to your page. I regret now that I didn’t add my husband.
Sorry this has happened to you, it’s such a stressful experience. A friend of mine had her Instagram hacked not too long ago and she was never able to get the account back. You’d think a company the size of Meta would be easier to deal with in these circumstances but unfortunately they’re not. I hope it’s not too much of a headache trying to build up again.
