Social Media l Digital Marketing l Facebook hacks l Instagram hacks

Social Media Account Hacks are on the Rise… Again!

Scenario 1: You get a notification on Facebook that has a red or blue triangle telling you that you have violated community standards or some other jazz. Included is a link. You click the link because it came from Facebook on Facebook, right? You say secure your account, enter your password and you have now lost your account. The hackers have it to do what they wish.

Scenario #2: You get an email from ‘Facebook’ saying that you, again, violated some term or community standard. You click it, same as any sane person would, enter your password and say audios to your account.

Scenario #3 (and this is how we started learning of these newer hacks): You get an alert from Instagram that your password has been changed. You click the link to say, ‘Wasn’t me’, enter your password and, wala, the account is gone.

Now, show of hands from people who have been a victim gotten an email, or know someone who has?

Based on the increased number of phone calls we are getting here at ADIM Media, we know that these hacks are not only successful, but are on the rise.

With every call and attempt to restore the account we learn something new.

One client really was befuddled when it happened to her. She fell for hack #1, a message on Business Suites.

 

Now, this looks legitimate, right? But, if you type in the link included here, it goes to a website where the language is not English. That is hint #1 that this is a hack. In addition, I have never seen Facebook send a message like this through messenger. And, if you click on the name of the page sending the message, it most likely goes to a page on the platform where these types of messages to multiple people are the only thing on the page.

Once the client clicked the link, and entered her password, the hacker took the account. We may have been able to attempt to get it back them but, once the hacker got the account, we surmised that they started posting inappropriate images that truly did violate standards. Her account was removed permanently by Facebook and she could not get it back, not matter what we tried to go. 

To make matters worse, she opened a new account which was quickly taken offline again because they flagger her email as being in violation.

The GREAT thing this client did was take screenshots all along the way of what happened, which we were able to present to the channel. When we proved the hack, they restored the new account she had opened, and she was back in business.

Now onto our story. As seasoned social media and marketing managers, we are somewhat arrogant thinking we know all the ways to avoid a hack attempt. We were eating crow after this one!

On a Saturday, while at a sporting event, our owner got and email from Instagram saying that the password on a client account had been changed. She clicked the link saying, ‘I did not change this password’ and nothing happened. The account was already gone. Someone had hacked into it and changed the password, the email and phone number, thus making it unrecoverable.

What had happened?

The hacker targeted accounts that did not have double verification activated. So, when she clicked the link, the account recovery system had already been changed.

Email is also how some hackers are targeting users.

This email has no Facebook branding, no legitimate email address that it came from AND the email it was sent to is not connected to any Facebook account.

Unfortunately, so many just click links in the fear of losing the account and end up losing it anyway.

There are ways to protect your account:

#1: Enact Double Verification on ALL social media channels. Make the system send you a code so that when others try to login you get a warning.

#2: DO NOT CLICK LINKS. If you get an email or message, type the link into another browser to verify its validity.

#3: Change your password regularly and make it HARD! Like, really hard.

Solutions if your account is hacked.

There are not a lot, to be honest. It is hard to get in touch with Facebook.

BUT, if you lose the account to what you believe is a hack, you can fill out this form: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/260749603972907

Here is another link to try as well, especially if you have a business account with another ADMIN that can fill it out for you: https://www.facebook.com/hacked.

If you lose an Instagram account, you can keep hitting ‘can’t sign in’ until it brings up the facial recognition software. This works on a personal account. If it is a business account, please try the links above.

Again, getting hacked Is no fun. Be sure to protect yourself and your accounts. If you get a suspicious email, ignore any links and go directly to your account and change your password.

Lori Pace
Owner/ CEO ADIM Media
ADIM Media is a full service marketing agency specializing in digital marketing. Managing over 50 social media accounts, they are the expert is all digital marketing platforms.  Knowing how to defend against hacks is at the top of their list for all of their clients.