North Carolina Facebook LIVE Host Targeted in Sophisticated Account Takeover Scam
A North Carolina content creator lost her Facebook page, 218,000 followers, and potential income after falling victim to a sophisticated hacking scam. The creator, who runs a Facebook LIVE podcast, detailed her experience, warning other online personalities to be vigilant.
the scam began with an invitation to collaborate, appearing to come from a legitimate source. During a video call, the scammer requested she share her screen and credentials to troubleshoot a technical issue. “As soon as someone asks you to show them your screen or share credentials, thatS a red flag,” explained cybersecurity expert Theresa Payton, CEO of Fortalice Solutions.
Instantly after the call, the creator found herself locked out of her account and marked as inactive. She was swiftly removed as administrator, losing all control.”I hung up immediately,” she said. “And then I went into, you know, panic mode.”
The scammer quickly duplicated the page, transferring her established audience to the fraudulent account. “As my follower count is going down, theirs is going up,” she recounted, “So in real time I am watching my account get drained.” The original page was then deleted entirely.
She described the experience as “like the equivalent of having somebody coming into my shop, holding me at gunpoint, clearing out the register, stealing my business, all of my customers, and then shutting it down and kicking me out.”
Despite reporting the hack to META and urging her followers to do the same, the scammer continued their efforts.They even altered the account’s creation date to appear as if they had owned it since 2018, effectively framing the victim as the perpetrator when reporting the issue to META. “Whenever I go to file a report with META … they look like they’ve owned my page since 2018 and I look like I’m the scammer,” she explained.
The scammers then created a second fake page and migrated her followers again.
Payton explained that these scams are becoming increasingly common, as perpetrators meticulously study social media platforms and user behaviour. “These people study the operational processes of social media and they study us and they just know how to be one step ahead of us,” Payton said.”They’ll actually point you to credentials that are legitimate credentials of somebody else’s. A real podcast show, a real influencer, a real organization.So it all looks legit… and then they take over the account and then they monetize the account.”
The creator is now rebuilding her following from scratch and sharing her story to prevent others from becoming victims. She continues to receive collaboration requests,highlighting the ongoing nature of the threat.
“I know how much it impacted me and kept me awake at night, because I had just gotten monetized and was making some kind of decent money from it,” she said. “I can’t imagine what it would be like if it was my full-time gig and this is what I was using to support my family.”
WBTV contacted META for comment but did not receive a response.
Payton offered two key pieces of advice: be cautious of unsolicited collaboration invitations, even if they appear legitimate, and immediately question any request to share your screen or credentials. “If they are legitimate, they will come up with something and if they don’t, you just saved yourself from becoming a victim of a scam.”
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