I Was Hacked - Facebook And Instagram Accounts Are Deactivated And I Need Your Help
/First, let me tell you a bit about myself so you further understand why this situation hits home a little harder for me. I am a marketing person and I guess I really always have been. Currently, I’m the marketing director for a large community bank with 40 branches in five states. I live in Southern Illinois, where I grew up, but 20+ years of my career was in Nashville, Tennessee where I worked at ad agencies, was the Director of Marketing for Gaylord Attractions (Grand Ole Opry, etc.) and Assistant Commissioner of Marketing for Tennessee Tourism (which means - Facebook - I’ve been buying advertising from you for a long time). I moved back to my hometown, because I had always wanted to revitalize our downtown area. I have rallied a community with historical efforts - all fueled through Facebook - and co-wrote a history book on the town, established a heritage museum and created a “You’re So Carterville” Facebook page where folks tied to Carterville could share photos and memories. I renovated a second downtown building with the sole purpose for a bakery and cafe that I thought our town needed.
Rise Above It Bakery and Cafe is owned by my sister and I assist with marketing and own the building. We opened just a year and half ago with thousands of Facebook fans before people could even enter our doors because I posted often of the renovation progress. The renovation won a Landmarks Illinois award, which says something for our little town since this group is primarily based in Chicago. I’m working on my third renovation of a 5,000-square-foot downtown historical building and I have been posting the progress along the way to keep the community engaged (or at least, I was). Through Facebook, the community could support these efforts by offering architectural salvage, historical memorabilia and photos, and other donations because they kept up with what was needed through my Facebook posts. Plus - their encouragement in Facebook comments - from some folks that I have never met in person - is incredibly energizing to these revitalization efforts. Also, I’m also one of those people that buy and sell on Facebook Market Place in order to find just the right item for these projects.
Then I was hacked…
On Tuesday, July 21st, my personal email was hacked. It led quickly that same day to my Facebook and Instagram accounts being deactivated, which involved not only my personal pages, but also J. Spence Properties page and an inability for any admin to post or make changes on Rise Above It Bakery’s Facebook page. The day’s events also included $1,000+ fraudulent charges on debit/credit cards, other password reset attempts by the hacker, and hundreds of emails sent from my email that were to unknown addresses with foreign-language messages and nude photos, before I could get it secure with my hosting company (which had exceptional customer service, by the way).
Here’s how it went down…
I first realized that something was wrong when I tried to check Facebook that afternoon and was notified that my account was deactivated. I’ll explain in detail the steps that I took with Facebook to attempt to correct this, but in summary of what the hacker accomplished, it was this: He got into my personal email, sent a test email to confirm he had access, then went to Facebook and somehow got access (which was different than a password to my email account). I missed all of this obviously, but according to my brother who only saw a glimpse of my Facebook profile page, the hacker had taken down my cover photo and replaced it with a “Muslim-type flag.” My brother didn’t see what had been posted, it was deactivated before he could do a screenshot. So I really don’t know the entire impact of how my Facebook page went against their “community standards,” but obviously if you would review my Facebook posts for 10+years prior to Tuesday, July 21st, you would realize it went against MY community standards also and this action was not done by me. Meanwhile, what seemed to be happening in a matter of minutes, American Express notified me by text with a suspicious $500 Facebook Ad charge to my personal credit card. Somewhere when this was all quickly happening, a marketing co-worker (who I had notified) removed me as an admin to our bank’s Facebook page, which appears to have saved it from having issues.
Let me say this about Facebook…
I have always been a fan of Facebook, even to those friends who told me how bad they didn’t like it. In fact, I’ve promoted them often - begging some friends “just please get on Facebook, you will love it.” Sure, there are posts shared that I would rather not read…”just scroll past it,” I would say. Sure, I’m guilty at looking at Facebook too often (well - until recently) like so many others. But Facebook has always served as a good marketing tool for me, a key tool for engaging a community into important and good efforts and an almost critical tool to keep up with friends, family, news and SMALL BUSINESS. When is the last time you’ve visited a restaurant or local shop before first checking out their Facebook page?
What disappoints me about Facebook is the non-existent customer service, the avoidance of human interaction. I do appreciate their security measures in deactivating accounts. I just want them to improve the communication process, because there basically has been no communication and they have already made their decision to not reactivate my accounts. What that means is not only am I losing all of my information from the past ten years (photos, timeline posts, etc.), but they also will not let me create a new account…for how long…forever? Who knows. This experience in trying to reach Facebook and Instagram and get my accounts reactivated as honestly caused panic, especially after reading this article in the New York Times where you can see that this happens often and the chance of me never being able to use Facebook or Instagram is a real possibility:
New York Times: Many People Are Abandoning Facebook. These People Have The Opposite Problem.
We truly have a society filled with more than two billion Facebook users who are now greatly accustomed to this way of life. To pull that lifeline out from what appears to be hundreds or thousands of people like me that use it as a good communication tool with no explanation of what happened, no way to discuss your case - is mentally mind-blowing. To do it during COVID-19, when social gatherings are minimal and for someone like me that lives alone and works from home permanently now, is devastating.
So I’m pleading to anyone that works at Facebook - please do what you can to have your company review my case again and activate my account. To others - please share this blog in a Facebook or Instagram post with #facebookreactivatejenniferspence and if you know anyone at Facebook, please reach out to them to see if they can help.
If you want to see the 20 steps that I have taken so far to try to resolve this with Facebook and the bounding frustration, keep reading…
The day that I was hacked, I first realized something was wrong when I went to Facebook to check notifications. When I did so, a box popped up that said my account was disabled due to my actions that were against Facebook’s Community Standards. It provided a second sentence that said to if I thought it was a mistake, to click “request review” (or something like that, forgot to screenshot).
Step 1 - Click on the link that yes - this was a mistake, please review!
When I clicked on “review”, it went to this “form” which asked only three things: Login, full name and a photo of your photo ID. No comment area, no way of communicating that I did not realize why this was happening.
Step 2 - Check Emails For Facebook Notifications
Before I submitted this, I quickly checked my personal email to see if I received some type of notification. I don’t check my personal email normally during a work day and I had missed emails from Facebook that my password had actually been reset twice in less than an hour. Facebook requires a special login code when you want to change your password from an unrecognized computer or browser. Facebook sent the login codes to my email address where the hacker was waiting for them. I failed to have the two-factor authentication set up within Facebook or I would have been notified by text and possibly could have reacted fast enough to this. I highly recommend that you make sure that you have two-factor authentication set up if you use Facebook.
Step 3 - Submit The Review Request
When I saw this had happened, I quickly took a photo of my driver’s license and completed the review request. I was frustrated and frazzled that there was no option there to explain that I now realize that I was just hacked. And I was nervous about sending my photo ID…was this really Facebook…? I had just been hacked, after all.
Step 4 - Try To Reply To Facebook Security
I replied to the Facebook email (from “The Facebook Security Team”/security@facebookmail.com) that had been sent to notify me that my password had been resent - that it was not me! I had been hacked and could not secure my account because the password had already been changed (obviously). I still have not received a response to that email.
Step 5 - Search For Way To Reach Facebook
I searched everywhere for a customer service option on Facebook - phone, email, online chat, something. No luck (and wasn’t surprised, I knew they were hard to reach - just didn’t know it was this hard). I found an option on their Help Center where I could notify them that I was hacked, so I thought surely that was the answer. Page looked like this…
Step 6 - Click on the “I think - no, I KNOW my Facebook account was my account was hacked.”
I clicked on the link and it took me to this…
Step 7 - Click on the “My Account Is Compromised.”
Yes, surely I was on the right track here. I clicked on “My Account Is Compromised” and it took me to this…
Step 8 - Click “Search.”
Which took me to login…surely this is going to work…
Step 9 - Press “Continue…”
So you can read the obvious…(frustration building)…
Step 10 - Click On “Secure My Account.”
”If you don’t know the current password” - of course I don’t know the current password, I was hacked. I clicked on “Secure My Accounts” only to get this…
You have got to be kidding me! It was disabled because my account was compromised!
Step 11 - Find Some Other Way To Reach Facebook - Search “Submit Feedback To Facebook.”
That Google search takes you to an option on Facebook to give feedback, but aww…yes…when you click on the link, you are required to login (#%$!). Honestly, at some point I found a way to submit my idea, but now I can’t figure out how I did it.
Step 12 - Ask Your Hosting Company’s Customer Service Representative Who Specializes In Security
So after she did a fantastic job on my call, I just asked the customer service representative for my hosting company, ”I know this is not your job, but do you have any experience with Facebook?” and then proceeded to tell her the story. “Oh yea, Facebook is the worst, this has happened to my husband a couple of times. I fixed it by going to their Online Chat.”
Step 13 - Find Facebook’s Online Chat Feature
“They don’t have an online chat that I can find anywhere in their Help Center,” I said.
The rep said, “Oh, I know, you won’t find it there; you have to just Google “Facebook” and it will be in the top right corner…”
“But.”, she said, “you have to be logged in to use the online chat feature.” (Are you kidding me?) “So just set up a gmail account under some weird name that you don’t care about and see if you can open a Facebook account.”
Step 14 - Open A Random Gmail Account So You Can Open A Fake Facebook Account In Order To Chat With Facebook
What? Yes - it is exactly what Facebook doesn’t want you to do, but apparently you have to do it to chat with them if your current account was deactivated unjustly to the REAL user…so I did…and I got logged in (with no friends - depression).
Step 15 - Click On Online Chat Button
I quickly clicked on the Online Chat button and - sorry that I didn’t screen shot this before deleting my “Had-to-set-up-fake-account-so-I could-chat-with-customer-service-rep” Facebook account - because…a screenshot would have shown you that you don’t chat with a “rep” at all. It is computer generated, so it had no idea of how to respond to “my account has been hacked, I need my account reactivated” question.
At this point, I am completely frustrated and now paranoid that this will screw up any attempt of getting my original profile account back, so I deleted this Facebook account - which apparently will take 30 days. Sigh
Step 16 - Submit Review Request Again And This Time - Create A Word Document That States Your Case As Well As Photo ID - Save Entire Thing As A JPG And Upload That As Your Photo ID.
Keep in mind, the first time I did this, you don’t get any type of reply message or pop-up box that tells you how long this will take or how you will know, etc. Just a notice that it is being reviewed. But this is three days later now when I submitted the second time…THREE DAYS… and it said this…
Reviewed what? Reviewed what the hacker posted in one day? Did you review my previous posts - years and years of posts - the did nothing wrong? Did you reach out to me find out what happened? Did you get any of my “I’ve been hacked” messages that I tried to send?
Step 17 - Apply For A Job At Facebook And Write Your Case In The Job Application
What do I have to lose? They have “already reviewed, will not be reversed.” I am begging Facebook - this is a crazy mistake - the decision has to be reversed. THIS IS MY JOB. THIS IS MY COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT. THIS IS MY CONNECTION TO FRIENDS, FAMILY, NEWS AND INFORMATION (not the only connection of course, but let’s face it - you miss a lot when you can’t access Facebook or Instagram). So yes, maybe it was crazy, but I submitted a job application for a position that I thought was most relative for whoever would be reviewing (or had reviewed) my case. (Besides, I got the idea from the NY Times article). What I got in return was an actual email reply from Facebook (automated in a completely non-human way, I know)…
Yea…”Global Head of IP Escalations, Risk & Response” was probably a long shot.
Step 18 - Repeat Step 16 And Hope It Was A Fluke
Same message but this time, and maybe I just noticed it, there was a “Download Your Information” in the top right corner. “Well,” I thought, “at least I can download my photos and timeline info.” Here’s what happens when you click on that button…
That was 32 hours ago…it is “still creating” my file…supposedly. I’d say it didn’t work, but I’m scared to close out the browser.
Step 19 - Try To Open A New Account With Your Real Name And Different Email
I decided if i ever get my old account back, that would be great, but I have to figure out a way to use Facebook because it is my job responsibility and I need to have a legitimate account, not a fake one…
I didn’t screenshot it, but basically it said they know that I had an account that was deactivated, shame on me, you can never play in this sandbox again - unless you create a fake account. Something like that.
Step 20 - Start Calling Your Friends Who Buy Facebook Advertising Directly With Facebook Reps
This seemed to help some people that we mentioned in online articles; what else do you do…
Step 21 (O.k., more than 20 steps) - You’re In Marketing - Create A Blog, A Hashtag, And Ask Your Friends To Share
Facebook, you might be able to deactivate my page, but you can’t delete my friends and family. They are out there and I’m so blessed to have a lot of them. I hope they get word to the right set of HUMAN ears that will please help me with this.
I’ll end with this. I just can’t rest with this type of response to this situation. My hosting company, credit card company, my bank - all of those partners treated me like a customer, communicated with me and helped me get secure again. It is very unsettling having someone hijack your email account. To have that feeling, combined with the complete frustration and panic that I won’t get this resolved with Facebook and Instagram is horrible. By the way, I tried to reach Instagram also, only to be constantly led to a login requirement to report anything…which you can’t do if they deactivated your account. And yes, I know my Facebook and Instagram icons are still on my website and linkable…to pages that do not work. It is just another reminder.
All things work together for good…
God has to be teaching me something through this. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” - Romans 8:28. What are you teaching me here, Lord? Another 2020 reminder that we are not in control? A reminder that I reached to read Facebook notifications a hundred-times more often than I reached for your word? I know you continue to try to teach me patience, and I’m really not learning that well with this situation.
To the hacker…
I know you were just a few miles away - somewhere on or near the university campus - and so does the police. Please don’t do this to someone else. I pray that you find a new purpose and that you utilize your talents for good. Because this has completely wasted a lot of energy and time that could have been better served.