As you may have heard, there have been several bloggers that have had their Facebook Pages hacked. I also had my account hacked and I wanted to share what happened to me so that hopefully, we can prevent others from going through this drama. So please read this and share it so we can stop this scammer!
Facebook Scam
I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I fell for this scam. Not just once, but TWICE. And I know what scams looks like! I know not to give out my personal info or passwords, but this one got me. It looked so real and legit…and by heavens, I did not want to lose the Craftaholics Anonymous® Facebook page I have worked for years to build up to 200,000 fans! So I clicked the “verifying” link and proceeded to provide my login info, email, and security question and answer. And then I felt relieved that I had saved my account from being suspended by Facebook.
WRONG!! The next day, I got an email stating the email address linked to my Facebook page had changed. I thought that was weird since I didn’t change my email address. So I tried to login to my Facebook account, but couldn’t. So I went through the process on Facebook to reclaim my Facebook account. Since I had added my cell number to my Facebook account, they texted me a verification code and I got back into my Facebook account fairly quickly.
When I got back into my FB account, I saw that someone had deleted my email addresses and changed an email address I did not recognize. I immediately changed the email address and password. And then looked around my FB account to see if anything else had been changed. I noticed that someone had created “Craftaholics Anonymous” app with my account as the author. Umm, I have not developed a Craftaholics Anonymous Facebook app. So I went in and deleted the app immediately. Then I went and to my security settings and added “Login Notifications” so that any time my Facebook account is accessed from a new device, I get a text message.
So a couple days passed again and I thought the verification for my blog’s FB Page had been approved and that I had successfully deterred the hacker that had gotten into my Facebook account. I didn’t realize that the 2 situations were linked.
I got the same message in my Craftaholics Anonymous® Facebook Page inbox again stating I needed to verify my account. Again, I thought that was really strange. We repost fans’ craft questions on our page and run it much like a crafting forum, but nothing against Facebook’s guidelines or rules. So I thought maybe the first time I “verified” it didn’t go through. I still did not realize at this point, that this verification message was a scam and that that was how someone had hacked into my FB account the first time.
Soooo I clicked the verification link AGAIN and gave them all my account info AGAIN. {yeah, not my brightest moment!} Shortly after doing so, I got a text telling me that someone in North Carolina had just logged into my account. Umm, last I checked, I still live in Virginia, not North Carolina. So within minutes of that text, I hopped onto my computer and changed my FB password and kicked off the scammer.
Yes, it took me twice to figure out that this was a scam. Fortunately, no damage was done and I only lost control of my Facebook account for 2 short periods. I consider myself very lucky compared to my friend, Kari who lost her FB account and had to jump through hoops to get it back.
TIP TO KEEP YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT SAFE: I highly recommend adding Login Notifications to your Facebook account in case someone ever does hack into your FB account. To do this, click the down arrow in the top right corner {in the blue bar} and select “Settings”. Then click “Security” in the left sidebar. Then click “Edit” next to Login Notifications and select email and/or text messages and then click “Save changes”.
I hope this prevents at least one person from losing their Facebook account! Please share this so we can stop this scammer!
PS and if you have a Craft Question, go post it on our Facebook page and get answers!
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Thanks for the heads up! I have done the login verification with my email already where if someone tried to access my gmail from an unknown source it will ask for a code that only I can get on my phone but I had not idea I could set that up for FB also! Thanks for sharing! I already have it setup!
At first I thought this was an April fools joke thing but now I see that Brooke at ‘All things Thrifty’ also got hacked…. you may want to reach out to her as well. I don’t understand why someone would hack a blog FB page – it just makes no sense to me. Thanks for the info I went straight to my FB page and did what you said with the security. I hope that these criminals can be caught and brought to justice!
So glad you were able to quickly catch this and not have a huge issue! This FB hacker stuff is getting crazy!!
Thanks, Allison! Its scary! The hackers are getting trickier and trickier.
So whatare the hackers trying to accomplish when they get control? I don’t understand. ..
If a hacker gains control of your Facebook account, they can steal all of your personal info, all of your FB friends’ info, post inappropriate pictures and links, etc. It can get ugly real quick.
One thing you must remember: never click on links in letters. To verify the account, go to facebook directly (by typing in the address for facebook and going to their verification page, not copying their link). Sometimes when you highlight the link, you will see the web address at the bottom of your page. You will often see that the web address is NOT the same as the link in the letter. If they had threatened to suspend your page, you should be able to go to facebook and verify it somewhere. I am highly suspicious of these types of letters and notices. I