‘Clear your name’: Aussie business owners ‘treated like terrorists’ after Facebook IS hack

A Victorian mum-of-two is outraged after her business was destroyed and she was locked out of her Facebook account with no help from the platform.

Three Aussies have been left devastated after a hacker gained control of their lucrative side hustles, completely ruining their businesses and making them look like terrorists or paedophiles.

For Rhani Capobianco, from Bairnsdale in Victoria, the nightmare began almost two years ago.

The 42-year-old mum-of-two made $35,000 a year from her graphic design side gig, Idea Plus Ink, until late one night in May 2020 she received a notification that $950 had been taken out of her PayPal account, which was linked to her Facebook business page.

“My heart just sank into my feet,” Ms Capobianco told news.com.au.

A hacker had hijacked her social media and quickly transferred money out, but it was their next move that instantly locked her out of her account and ultimately destroyed her business.

The hacker changed her profile picture to an Islamic State flag.

This was immediately recognised as a breach of Facebook’s community standards, and her account was de-activated.

This profile picture has completely ruined Ms Capobianco’s lucrative side gig.

Another profile picture posted to Rhani’s account within minutes of the first one.

The move even affected her ability to work around the hack by creating a new account, because every time she tried the site would recognise her link to the hacked account and she would be automatically booted out.

Ms Capobianco said repeated requests to Facebook to have her account reinstate went unanswered.

“My name was taboo in Facebook,” she said. “They treated me like I was a terrorist.”

The distraught business owner had previously paid $3000 to boost her business as part of an advertising campaign, and said she expected that as a paying customer there would be a process to help her reclaim her account and salvage the business she had built up over 10 years. But she said she has received no assistance from the platform in 20 months, until Facebook was approached about the matter by news.com.au.

“The years of the hustle, trying to get everyone back to your market, it was just too difficult,” she said. “I gave up, honestly.”

The mum is not alone.

Rhani Capobianco says she’s been “treated like a terrorist” ever since her account was compromised in May 2020.

Dan Mackrell, from Colac, Victoria, spent five years building up 6000 followers on his fishing page.

But last month, the 40-year-old’s profitable fishing side hustle was hacked and he was slugged with a $380 credit debt after the hacker accessed the credit card details he had linked to his Facebook business account.

Like in Ms Capobianco’s case, his profile picture had been changed to a pro-IS image.

“I was at a work conference early December, I’d had my phone off for two or three hours,” Mr Mackrell told news.com.au.

“(When I finally finished the conference) it looked like Chernobyl had hit my phone; there were screenshots, messages from friends, photos uploaded, some IS-related profile pics.

“I had a notification to say there had been a data breach and my password had been sent out.”

His account is now also dead in the water.

Dan Mackrell woke up to this December 7 last year.

Dan made some handy extra cash from selling products and having sponsorship deals on his fishing page, up until it was hacked.

Both their business pages had fallen prey to the “ISIS hack”, a common tactic used by Facebook hackers to buy time while emptying out the victim’s bank account.

Essentially, hackers target people like Ms Capobianco and Mr Mackrell, who have a personal Facebook page linked to a business account.

The hackers take over their accounts and changed their profile picture to an IS flag, triggering an automatic shut down, so the account’s owner is locked out the hackers clear out the PayPal account or credit card attached to their linked business page.

The response Mr Mackrell got from Facebook.

A third Aussie working a side job was also devastated when two weeks ago, he fell victim to a similar hack.

Mark Cowan, 45, from Newcastle in NSW, would make about $200 a week from repairing and reselling arcade machines and retro TVs.

He used Facebook Marketplace to buy the electronics cheaply, fixed them up and would then sell them on at a higher price.

His hobby was so lucrative he was able to finance a trip away with his wife and two kids solely on money made from this venture.

The extra cash was particularly helpful as his wife’s income was restricted during the state’s extended lockdown as she worked in the hair and makeup industry.

But about 6am one morning Mr Cowan woke up the Facebook account at the centre of his side hustle no longer existed.

Luckily he didn’t lose any money as he hadn’t linked his PayPal or credit card to the Facebook account but his profile picture was changed to a child exploitation image.

“At any time it (your account) can be snatched away from you,” the dad warned news.com.au readers.

“You’re an easy target.”

Mr Cowan on holiday with his kids — which he was able to afford thanks to his side hustle.

Mr Cowan says Facebook must not care about their customers based on his experiences. Pictured: His son collecting TVs to repair.

To this day none of them have any idea how their accounts were compromised. They don’t recall clicking on a dodgy link in the days leading up to the hack.

All three are also distressed because they have got nowhere with Facebook despite lodging multiple reports.

“If anyone is basing their business on Facebook, they need to know this stuff,” Mr Cowan said.

“They don’t put any resources into it. They simply don’t care about their customers one bit.”

Mr Mackrell couldn’t agree more.

“It’s dead end after dead end,” he explained. “There’s an appeals process, every time you click on that, it says it’s already been reviewed, and the decision hasn’t been reversed.

“You can’t even put any notes in to clear your name.”

Facebook responds

After news.com.au brought the issue to Facebook’s attention, a spokesperson confirmed an investigation is now under way.

Facebook said it was crucial for users to stay vigilant against hackers.

“It’s important people understand how to protect their accounts from suspicious activity which is why we’ve built features that give people the power to manage their experience with our platforms and take action when they see something suspicious,” they said in a statement.

Steps involve turning on two-factor authentication, reporting suspicious accounts, and avoiding phishing including by not clicking on unsolicited links or responding to strange messages and emails.

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Originally published as ‘Clear your name’: Aussie business owners ‘treated like terrorists’ after Facebook IS hack