'Not just money': Mum issues warning after disturbing Facebook scam

“How would you feel having a stranger look through the windows of your house? That’s what this feels like."

A Victorian mum of three who had her Facebook account hacked and precious photos of her family stolen, has warned others to be cautious about friend requests and to set up two-factor authentication on their accounts.

When Bianca, 32, received a message from someone purporting to be an extended relative on Messenger, she gave them the benefit of the doubt. 

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Bianca has a lot of relatives from the Cook Islands, some of whom she hasn’t met. 

“They asked if I wouldn’t mind promoting their clothes selling business,” said Bianca.

“I have seen TikTok videos about pranking scammers, so I thought to at least check this person’s credibility by asking them to send me a selfie. 

“They did, but in all honesty I didn’t actually know what this relative looked like because I hadn’t met them in person.”

Bianca said “sure” and seconds later, she received a text message with a link. 

She clicked on it.

Bianca and her family. Image: supplied

"I thought something was fishy"

The next day, she was scrolling and suddenly got a message from Facebook that she was logged out and couldn’t get back in. 

“I thought something was fishy and tried to log back in,” Bianca said. 

“I no longer had access to my childhood email that I used to set up my account about 17 years ago, so couldn’t re-access my account.”

Bianca asked her husband to check her Facebook profile from his account, and that’s when they confirmed Bianca had been hacked.

The scammers had put up a post on Bianca’s account about getting a new car using cryptocurrency and shared a link to another person’s Facebook page. 

Feeling alarmed, Bianca’s husband posted an update on his feed and tagged their mutual friends, telling them to delete Bianca before they got scammed. Three or four had already commented and more had liked the fake post. 

“My husband commented directly on the post to tell those people it was a scam,” said Bianca. “Moments later, he was locked out of his Facebook. 

“Luckily he was able to reset his password before losing complete access and to set up two-factor authentication immediately.”

"Anxiety every day"

Bianca and her husband reported her stolen profile and asked all of their friends to do the same, but the damage had been done.

All of their messages and personal information dating back 15 years were visible to the scammers, and Bianca said they felt incredibly violated by the security breach.

“My husband felt very vulnerable and the situation gave him anxiety every day,” she said.

“I personally was faced with losing all my photos of my babies, my childhood, my deceased Mum. 

“All of my photo albums and memories were stored on this Facebook account.”

Bianca used her husband’s account to scroll through her old profile and screenshotted and saved everything. Unfortunately, she’ll never get back the videos she’d shared.

In the meantime, fake posts were still being posted on Bianca’s old page. 

“They even used a photo of me and my son, made it their iPhone screensaver and uploaded a photo of this in a post about crypto,” she said. 

“I certainly felt violated for myself and my young son.”

Bianca said she was concerned about her kids’ welfare after being hacked. 

“Someone could go to my son’s school, know what he looks like and lure him with knowledge of his brothers’ names, dogs’ names, parents’ names, friends… so much info is on Facebook,” she said.

Bianca encouraged other parents to download their profile data and to enable two-factor authentication. 

“I also am cautious about who I add, and browse their page to see if it is legitimate before adding them,” she said.

“If I was to say anything to the scammers, I would ask them how willing they were to share their children with the world?

“I would ask them if they would be okay with someone stealing their memories?

“I would ask them how they felt about having someone they don’t know look through the windows of their house at any given moment? That’s what it feels like."

Originally published as 'Not just money': Mum issues warning after disturbing Facebook scam