There is little more enraging than getting your Facebook page hacked and hijacked by scum. In this case Russians, with identifying email in the .ru domain. Thus, the email I received yesterday morning from FB's team first asked if I had changed my account settings as well as email and password last night, at 10:43 p.m. Pacific time. Errrr, no, because I was sound asleep. The message appearing from Facebook was:
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This is to let you know
that the email address xxxxxxxx was
just removed from your Facebook account. |
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But all efforts to regain control of this Facebook page, including all my friends on it, as well as preferences (reading, sports, movies etc.) was met by a tech stonewall. Meaning all changes (including resetting of password) had to go through to an obvious Russkie email with domain identified .ru. The link shown at the very end of this post gives advice on what to do including:
As soon as you see any indication that someone has hacked your Facebook account, start by changing your password and tightening your security settings. It’s also a good idea to inform your friends and followers that your account was compromised, and report the incident to Facebook.
However, scammers often move quickly to lock you out of a hacked Facebook account by changing your password and updating your phone number and email so that you can’t access your login or 2FA codes.
But the scammers did indeed move quickly to ensure I could not return to my original page. What I had to settle for, instead, was receiving a 6-digit code from Facebook via an alternate email, which email was then verified by sending the code back to Facebook. The problem is that it still meant only setting up a new account - not getting back to the old one with all my photos, messages, friends etc. In the end, I was forced to remove the original account.
Hell's bells, in the new reincarnation of the FB page I can't even name my own wife as a friend, because there is no relationship option for 'wife'! Nor can I simply transport each friend from the old page because I can't access it. As for preferences, forget it. I don't even see a way to enter them - although the headers show up, e.g. TV, sports teams, movies, books etc. But no way to type any entries in, only blanks which keep repeating "No movies selected", "No books selected", blah blah.
Moral of the story: Do all you can NOW to prevent your Facebook page from being hacked. Oh yeah, that also refers to Instagram accounts, Snapchat , Tik Tok and the other options now taken to be "cooler" than FB.
How To Recover a Hacked Facebook Account Step by Step (aura.com)
2 comments:
Oh, wow! Thank you so much for this invaluable information. So sorry that your FB account was hacked by Russians. It is a scary world we live in anymore, especially if you're online. I can still see your old FB account and all your friends. If it would help, I can private message family and tell them to send you a friend request? I just sent you a request.
I took all your suggestions and hanged my PW and reset my security settings, thank you again for this information! I don't use any other online platform (i.e., tik-tok, instagram, etc), was even considering deleting my FB account.
Had another Russkie attack today, Jo, with an effort to permanently delete my primary email. Also evidence of introduction of malware via what's called Koobface virus attack. We ended up having to replace 2 credit cards etc. after being compromised. So not adding any more friends to FB, or making requests given the potential negatives. Will keep you informed of how things get sorted out. Just be sure also you have the best proprietary protection software on your own computers. The security person at Citibank, after securing my account, recommended the ultimate Avast antivirus software. But Janice found soon after she could have her own System Mechanic protect all our devices. So we are good to go for now! Re: the old FB account there's little I can do now but if I can get hold of FB I will tell them to take it down.
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