What to Do if Your Facebook Account Is Hacked

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Hopefully, the day will never come when yous find your Facebook account has been hacked or taken over. Information technology is an atrocious feeling, and I experience for you, for the world of hurt that you will experience in time and perhaps money to render your account to your rightful command.

Let me accept you through the recovery process. Afterward, I'll provide some proactive security pointers you tin can follow to prevent this awful moment from happening, or at least reduce the chances that it will.

Three ways you can lose control of your Facebook account

There are actually three different possible scenarios.

Scenario 1. You permit a family member or friend "borrow" your Facebook account on your computer or phone. They proceed to eat content, post letters as you, or befriend random people. This happened to a friend of mine, who had a grandchild staying at her home for a week. The girl left town and left a mess behind on my friend'due south Facebook account. "She didn't post anything to my account, but I had odd friend requests that I had to clean up. I decided to just quit using my account." This is more than of a nuisance than a hack, just still annoying.

Remedy: First, use Facebook'south security page to check and run into where else your account is already logged in.

This listing should also remind you of all of the devices that yous have used Facebook on in the by. I took this screenshot after I plant (so removed) an older Windows laptop that I hadn't used in years on the listing. You'll also run into an entry for my iPhone that is located somewhere in Indiana. I haven't visited that state in years, then sometimes the geo-location algorithms are a bit wonky. Fifty-fifty if your business relationship isn't hacked, it is helpful to routinely bank check this screen to make certain you haven't enabled a login past mistake.

If you lot don't recognize (or don't use) any of the devices on this listing, click on the three vertical dots on the correct and force those machines to log out of your account. Next, change your password to something unique. Also, remember in the future to sign out of Facebook (and Messenger) before you loan your device to anyone.

Scenario 2. Someone uses your photo and proper noun and sets upwardly a new account. Then they proceed to try to recruit your FB friends to their account.

Remedy: There isn't much you can exercise nigh information technology, other than tell people you are still you and to ignore the imposter. This should be a alarm when y'all receive a friend request from someone you think you accept already befriended, or someone y'all haven't communicated with in years. A discussion to the wise: send them an electronic mail or text asking if the request is genuine.

Scenario 3. The doomsday scenario. Someone guesses your account password and proceeds to lock you out of your business relationship. This situation is the nearly dire, and fixing this volition depend on what else you accept linked to your Facebook account and how determined yous are to go it back.

This happened to Elizabeth, a book author. She ended up working with two different friends who were IT professionals and a lawyer over the course of four months. She had two complicating factors that made recovering her business relationship difficult.

First, she used Facebook ads to promote her books, so she had connected her login to her credit cards. This resulted in the hacker charging her card with their own ads to try to lure other victims to compromise themselves.

The 2nd complexity was that she was using her pen proper noun and a random birthday date for her account. During the recovery process, Facebook asks that you scan your ID to verify who you are. When she told me this, I became concerned for myself. For years I prided myself on using January 1 as my Facebook "birthday." Now she was telling me that I was setting myself up for trouble if someone hacked my account.

She eventually got her password reset, merely nearly immediately the hacker reset and took over her account again. "I tried to become someone at Facebook to help me, but I couldn't get anyone on the telephone," she told me. Earlier the pandemic, the visitor had a special phone hotline for industry insiders, "but this was discontinued," she said. She had more success blocking the credit card charges by phoning her bank. "I was trying to be a step ahead of the hacker, and losing sleep. My whole life was put on hold as I tried to deal with the situation. I got no piece of work done for months. I ended upwards irresolute my passwords on more than thirty unlike accounts."

Possible remedies: if you observe yourself in this concluding situation, you have 3 basic choices:

1. Now would be a practiced time to leave Facebook. The trouble is, you have someone who is pretending to exist you, and could leverage your identity into criminal and uncomfortable situations. Not to mention that they could try to leverage bank accounts that are linked to your account or open upward credit cards in your proper name. (More than on that in a moment.)

2. Try to reinstate your account on your own, using Facebook'southward own obscure and often contradictory steps. That is the mode near people I know accept tried. Nevertheless, y'all will find out very quickly that there is no easy style to do this. You take to communicate with Facebook support through someone else's account, which seems somewhat contradictory, and then hopefully your spouse or friend is willing to lend a hand. (Don't exist tempted to set up a 2nd account, because that could result in both of your accounts eventually existence canceled.) And so y'all take to choose i of several options (finding an unauthorized mail, an business relationship that uses your own name and/or photos) and enter the rabbit hole to recover your business relationship.

If you use Facebook every bit a ways to log into other internet services, you will have to disconnect these links — otherwise a hacker tin can then compromise these other accounts. If, like Elizabeth, you lot have continued your credit carte or other financial accounts, y'all will have to contact these institutions and get these charges rescinded. Showtime by trying to use Facebook from other devices you accept previously used: maybe the hacker hasn't automatically logged you out.

3. Apply a third-party recovery service, such as Hacked.com. This will cost you lot $249, just the company will be persistent and if they can't help y'all, they will refund your fee. Yous besides get a year's digital protection plan included that commonly sells separately for $99. If you have a complex situation like Elizabeth (continued finances, non-matching birthday), I recommend using this path.

Only make sure you aren't employing some random hacker who might be taking your money and doing nothing else. I spoke to Hacked.com founder Jonas Borchgrevink, who outlined the various sequences of steps that his staffers try in a recent Washington Post article. And he confirmed that if you are using a different name from what is shown on your ID, it is almost incommunicable to recover your business relationship.

Proactive security measures

If yous haven't been hacked (even so) and are getting somewhat uncomfortable reading this, here are some steps to take to secure your Facebook business relationship, or to at least reduce your pain points if it does happen. Outset past doing at least one of them today, and make sure you take intendance of all of the items every bit soon as possible.

i. Set up boosted login security on your Facebook account. Facebook offers you a set up of confusing choices, but the i that I recommend is to use a ii-gene authenticator app such every bit Google Authenticator. (You can start at this Facebook page.)

Two-gene authentication (also known every bit 2FA) uses an Android or iOS smartphone app every bit part of the login procedure. After you supply your username and password, Facebook asks you to type in a serial of half-dozen numbers that are generated past the app. These numbers modify every minute, so yous need your phone nearby when y'all log in. If you want extra credit, take the fourth dimension to enable this 2d factor method on your other accounts, including whatsoever banks and credit card companies that support this method (sadly, besides few do).

Elizabeth was using a less secure method for her second cistron: sending the six numbers as a text message to her phone. You tin can read more than well-nigh why this isn't my preference.

2. Check to run into if you have any payment methods configured on Facebook. While preparing for this article, I was surprised to find my PayPal accost linked to my Facebook account — and I idea I was beingness careful most my Facebook security. There are two places to bank check. Start, at that place is the page that shows if you take set up any credit cards to make direct payments to individuals or causes, called Facebook Pay. Become to this other link to remove any ad payment methods. If yous are running any ad campaigns on your business, you will take to stop them first.

iii. Remove connected apps and websites. If yous have signed on to 3rd-party apps using your Facebook credentials, now is the time to review and remove them (you can find the appropriate page hither). The same is truthful with removing whatsoever business integrations. Yous take a pocket-sized hit in not being able to automatically log into these other services, but y'all also protect yourself if your account has been compromised.

If you take a Facebook business page, you should accept at least two people who have admin rights to this page. (Get to Folio Settings > Page Roles.) If your concern account is hacked and you are the sole admin, it will be next to impossible to get information technology recovered. This contact should also have second cistron hallmark turned on.

4. Check your business relationship's electronic mail contacts (using this Facebook page). You should have at least a second contact email (or more) that Facebook can use to send you notifications in instance your main email accost becomes compromised. Of course, apply different passwords with these different email accounts.

I know, this seems like a lot of work, and in that location are a lot of places in the Facebook settings pages that you will have to visit and pay attention to. And chances are, the links provided above might not work in the future, as Facebook likes to brand changes to its settings.

If these activities to make yourself more secure haven't gotten you lot frustrated, you lot might want to keep improving your security. I recommend either the Colossal smartphone app for iOS and Android, or Avast One (available on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android). Either can help walk y'all through the numerous steps to secure your Google, Twitter, and other accounts.

Parting words of wisdom

Think before you click. If you become a message from what looks like a social media company saying that your account has been compromised, don't follow any links or phone call any phone numbers in the message. This could be a lure from a hacker. Instead, navigate to the site or utilize its own app straight.

Be aware of things that seem unusual. Keep an center out for letters y'all didn't send, posts you didn't create, or purchases yous didn't make. These could be tells that someone has guessed your password or compromised your account. If y'all are lucky, it might be an errant teen using one of your computers.

Equally Elizabeth told me, "Being hacked is like getting a digital tattoo — everyone tin see the after-effects of your poor choices."

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Source: https://www.theverge.com/22785819/facebook-hacked-security-privacy-recover