http://dreamlocal.com/2011/05/04/question-of-the-day-help-my-facebook-account-has-been-hacked/ Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:15:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://dreamlocal.com/2011/05/04/question-of-the-day-help-my-facebook-account-has-been-hacked/#comment-790 Chaz Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:28:08 +0000 http://dreamlocal.com/?p=1212#comment-790 About a month ago, while I was away from home and at a time when my I'd used my cell phone so much that it had "died", someone was able to hack on to my FB page and posted a series of pharmaceutical spam messages in broken English. So broken was the English, in fact that it included references to "myself" (since the material appeared next to my name) could have been construed as being read in the past tense. More than a few of my friends actually took this seriously, presumed, I guess, that I was going to "off" myself, and proceeded to call the police. I discovered this that night when I returned home and confronted the embarrassment of my next door neighbor telling me that police had been by, and then after I logged on to facebook and got a couple of messages cluing me in as to what happened. But what infuriated me was that I never actually saw the offending material - the preceding account essentially is an amalgam of what was described to me by friends. Maybe the offender deleted the references after s/he saw what kind of panic was being produced; but I can't rule out the possibility that maybe Facebook deleted it itself after they presumably were contacted by the police and realized that their own lax security caused needless chaos. Obviously, I've deleted my FB account. Not surprisingly, I summarized this story when I was asked by FB as to "why" I was deleting the account and no one ever got back to me (I mean, I don't advertise on FB, so why should they care?) I'm very disappointed that I have a bunch of friends who get so easily fooled by a hacker and/or think so little of me that they'd actually think I'd not only attempt suicide but declare my intentions publicly. That's my problem. But this was an instance not only of where my page got so easily hacked, but where FB itself may have been complicit in abetting a hacker after they themselves discovered they had, well, f--ked up royally. Anybody else have a similar experience? About a month ago, while I was away from home and at a time when my I’d used my cell phone so much that it had “died”, someone was able to hack on to my FB page and posted a series of pharmaceutical spam messages in broken English. So broken was the English, in fact that it included references to “myself” (since the material appeared next to my name) could have been construed as being read in the past tense. More than a few of my friends actually took this seriously, presumed, I guess, that I was going to “off” myself, and proceeded to call the police. I discovered this that night when I returned home and confronted the embarrassment of my next door neighbor telling me that police had been by, and then after I logged on to facebook and got a couple of messages cluing me in as to what happened. But what infuriated me was that I never actually saw the offending material – the preceding account essentially is an amalgam of what was described to me by friends. Maybe the offender deleted the references after s/he saw what kind of panic was being produced; but I can’t rule out the possibility that maybe Facebook deleted it itself after they presumably were contacted by the police and realized that their own lax security caused needless chaos.
Obviously, I’ve deleted my FB account. Not surprisingly, I summarized this story when I was asked by FB as to “why” I was deleting the account and no one ever got back to me (I mean, I don’t advertise on FB, so why should they care?)
I’m very disappointed that I have a bunch of friends who get so easily fooled by a hacker and/or think so little of me that they’d actually think I’d not only attempt suicide but declare my intentions publicly. That’s my problem. But this was an instance not only of where my page got so easily hacked, but where FB itself may have been complicit in abetting a hacker after they themselves discovered they had, well, f–ked up royally. Anybody else have a similar experience?

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