DENVER — Coloradans continue to reach out to Denver7 as they meet dead ends trying to regain access to their hacked Facebook and Instagram accounts.
As we’ve reported, countless people have had both their personal and professional accounts hacked and used to solicit money through fake sales and spread harmful material.
That’s what happened to Littleton resident Nicole Lechman-Trujillo at the end of October. She found herself locked out of her own Facebook account, with a hacker gaining access and changing her password, associated email account, and associated phone number.
After weeks of failed attempts to get help from Facebook’s parent company, Meta, Lechman-Trujillo began getting text messages from friends and family about posts being made to her page offering fake Taylor Swift concert tickets.
“I have a teenage daughter who loves Taylor Swift, and there would be no way that I would be selling Taylor Swift tickets,” Lechman-Trujillo laughed. “My daughter would be going to the concert.”
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Coloradans seeing their Facebook accounts hacked, then getting banned for life
It hasn’t stopped there. The hacker (or hackers) have also posted fake ads for furniture and appliances, asking Lechman-Trujillo’s friends for online payments. It has left her feeling like “a victim and powerless” as the hackers continue to target the people she cares about.
Her requests for help to Meta remain unanswered. She’s even tried to get help from law enforcement agencies, she said.
“I’ve tried to reach out to everybody, and nobody can help me to fix what feels like such an easy problem, especially when you think of all the events and things that are facing our world,” Lechman-Trujillo said. “This can be fixed.”
This is a growing problem, which Denver7 hasreported on several times. Each time, our requests for information and comment have gone unanswered. While data on hacked accounts is not directly available, the Identity Theft Resource Center reports 40 percent more inquiries about stolen social media accounts in 2022 compared to 2020.
“What we’re asking is for a human — someone — to have to answer a phone, someone to respond to you in a timely manner, give you actual steps on how to resolve this issue,” Lechman-Trujillo pleaded.
On its website, Meta lists several recommended steps for account holders to take to protect their accounts from hackers: make sure two-factor authentication is turned on; use a strong password, without anything personally identifiable like your name, number, or birthday; and remove your personal profile from search engines. Each of these can be done in your account settings on Facebook.
