Fitness chicks sick over hacked account: Base Body Babes’ nightmare as followers ‘stolen’

A LEADING Aussie fitness duo are devastated after their Instagram account was hacked and their half a million followers ‘stolen’.

A LEADING Aussie health and fitness company and personal trainer duo are devastated after their Instagram account was hacked and more than half a million followers ‘stolen’ from them over the weekend.

Base Body Babes is a health and fitness brand directed by fitness-guru sisters, Felicia Oreb and Diana Johnson, and with one of the most successful fitness Instagram accounts, @basebodybabes, which once had nearly 560,000 followers.

The duo say it is one of the country’s most popular and respected health and fitness brands.

Over the weekend, Felicia Oreb checked their Instagram account and when she tried to view their profile, she realised she had been logged out and the password wasn’t working.

“I picked up my husband’s phone and checked the page where I was shocked to see only 170 of our 765 images were left on the profile,’’ said Ms Oreb.

“Before my eyes, the images were being deleted one after another and within a few minutes, the entire account was deleted and the name was changed to ‘dailyfitnessbabes’.”

Felicia and her business partner and sister definitely think their account has been hacked. The name has been changed several times and is now currently ‘finestfitnessgoals’.

The only thing that remained the same out of the whole palaver is that their ‘organically’ garnered 559,000 are no longer following them.

Felicia said she contacted Instagram instantly via email to report the ‘hacking’ and seek some answers.

“We had some minor correspondence with the tech team, but have still had no promise that anything can or will be done to retrieve their account,’’ said Ms Oreb.

“We are eagerly awaiting their response and are hopeful Instagram will be able to help us regain all of our followers and our content.”

Base Body Babes started a new page with the same name, @basebodybabes, and had accumulated almost 40,000 followers within 24 hours, but as of publishing this, that ‘new’ account has also been taken down.

Social media platforms are some of the most important ways to market many businesses — and it has also become one where some operators ‘buy’ ridiculous amounts of followers in order to look more popular than they really are while also trying to impress potential advertisers.

Fortunately, in the fitness landscape the carefully curated images from these sisters have given their followers — all of which the girls say have been garnered organically (that is, not paid for) — a snapshot of health and fitness information, including style and food ideas and inspiration, plus an array of motivational fitness selfies.

The ‘Babes’, who also own a gym and cafe in North Sydney, say they have spent more than two years developing their brand through Instagram and their other social media platforms.

“We have started an Instagram campaign called #bringbackbasebodybabes and we have had the most amazing response from fellow Instagrammers,’’ said Ms Oreb.

“With hundreds of accounts sharing our images and encouraging people to follow us and report the hacker’s account. We have been so overwhelmed with the love and support so far and are feeling positive.

“We will not let one person destroy everything we have worked so hard to develop, we are strong, motivated, passionate women and will be working harder than ever to recreate what was stolen from us.”

Asked whether they think they may know the ‘hacker’, Ms Oreb is straightforward. “[The hacker was] someone who wanted our followers, but we would never imagine that someone we know would do this to us,” she said. “But we guess, you never know.”

The sisters have spent two years building up their social media presence.

The sisters are trying to get their followers back.

The hashtag #bringbackbasebodybabes has attracted support.

“Before my eyes, the images were being deleted one after another.”

They say Instagram has given no promise that the account can be retrieved.

“We will not let one person destroy everything we have worked so hard to develop.”