Waking up to a nightmare, I found myself locked out of my own Facebook account during a pivotal moment for my business. The chaos that unfolded after my Business page was hacked is more than just a personal ordeal; it's a stark reminder of the fragility of our online presence. I'll take you through the emotional rollercoaster and the unexpected lifeline that Meta's verification system threw my way. It was a battle of wits and patience, dealing with lost ticket numbers and an ad account bleeding money from unauthorized spending. My story isn't just a cautionary tale, but a roadmap for anyone blindsided by cyber threats, offering a glimmer of hope and practical tips to reclaim what's rightfully yours.
Shifting from the perils of cybersecurity to the power of independence, we'll explore why every entrepreneur needs to fortify their connection with their audience beyond social media. With an email list, well, its a game changer, navigating through the seas of algorithms and digital uncertainties. In this candid conversation, I underscore the invaluable strategies for creating an email list that acts as a lifeline to your customers, keeping your community within reach at all times.
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Speaker 1:
Hello, it's Victoria here and welcome to a bonus episode of my entrepreneur diary. So, going to be honest, this episode was a really quick idea that I had around half an hour ago, and the reason that I had this idea for this bonus app was because I had seen a post on Instagram saying about someone having their Facebook hacks. Now, as a lot of you know, back in October last year, I had my Facebook hacked and I actually got back into it. So this app is for anyone who has been hacked. I'm going to tell you what happened and how I actually was able to access my Facebook. So I thought maybe this would be of help because, after speaking to different people when it happened to me, it is happening, unfortunately, a lot. So here it goes.
Speaker 1:
So, october last year, I woke up to an email from Meta saying that they couldn't up the threshold of my adsecount. So for me, I was thinking, well, the threshold is really high anyway and I don't want to up it, so I thought that's a little bit weird. So then, from reading that email, I went straight to my Facebook, tried to log in and I couldn't get into my Facebook. It was effectively saying that I had broken some guidelines of Facebook and that I would need to log in via my Instagram because my Instagram account was attached to my Facebook. It was linked because, as we all know, it just makes it so much more easier, doesn't it, when posting out content. So I thought, okay, well, I've forgotten my password before and I've logged in through Instagram. So I went to Instagram and I went to log in that way, but unfortunately, the hacker had done a really good job and they had unlinked my Instagram from my Facebook and they had entered their own email for their own Instagram. So, effectively, my Instagram was not linked to my Facebook anymore, so I had no way of entering my Facebook. I know, nightmare, right? It really really was.
Speaker 1:
So I replied back to the email that Meta had sent me and I put along the lines of I have been hacked. This was not me, I'm not trying to up my threshold of my ads account. I currently had ads running and the ads had stops as well, and I was in the middle of a launch. So this absolutely threw my world. It really really did, because I've said on different podcasts the sorry Epps that it's been four years in the making and to actually get to the point where you're about to launch and that happens. Yeah, that is probably one of the worst things that can happen when you're in the middle of the launch and you've got ads running as well. So I, as I say, I replied to that email. I got no answer. So how do you do it then? I don't know. Oh no, not. You, to today's date, still got no answer from that email.
Speaker 1:
So, as you can imagine, like I think a lot of us would, straight to Google researching everything, how do I get back into our hack to count? Now, I Couldn't speak to Facebook help, to meta help, because I had no access to my Facebook. So, cutting a long story short about every other new that I tried to take, I put a post up on my Instagram, which was the best thing that I could have done, and I had an influx of emails and one of those emails came from a lady and she said to me have you, are you met her verified? And I said I was, but then I just thought what's the point? So I decided just to cancel the subscription. So she said to me get met her verified and you will be able to speak to the chat. Well, of course, it was so obvious. But because I was in such a blind panic I didn't think of this. So I was like, okay, okay, that, yes, of course. So I Quickly paid the I don't know how much it is, I can't even remember Paid the subscription and within five minutes I was through to met her. I told them exactly what had happened and then they called me. So I think calling me was probably just to verify who I was and to be able to speak to me. So from there they issued me a case number to effectively like a ticket number.
Speaker 1:
Now, this was back in October and I finally got back into my Instagram Just before Christmas, I think it was. So you know, we're looking at about three months that it did take. Now I Wish I could say to you that it was just a point of talking to met her and waiting, but it really, really wasn't. I had to go backwards and forwards and then they lost the ticket number and then it wasn't being dealt with and then I was being told that it was being dealt with. So it was a lot of chewing and throwing. There was a few calls as well in between, where you know met, who would be calling me to verify things. So you know it wasn't a straightforward, but Definitely 100%. If you get hacked, talk to met her verified Because even though there was a lot of chewing and throwing backwards and forwards, they did help me.
Speaker 1:
So I got back into my account and then I thought, right, okay, I need to carry on running my ads. So Then I realized my ad spend I don't even spend because I just paid the bill. So I only spent around 30 30 pounds on ads up to the point that I got hacked. And so therefore, when I went back onto the ads account, I had a little bit of a shock because the hacker had Turn off everything on my ad accounts so there was no thresholds. So always set a threshold and there was no thresholds set and They'd run it up to over a thousand pounds. So, in all honesty, I'm still sorting out that bit.
Speaker 1:
So being hacked was an absolute bloody nightmare. I mean, it really really was. And, of course, even though I'm now back into my business Facebook and I'm posting and creating content, can send and everything you know that you do I'm still actually sorting that ad account out. But the whole point of doing doing this bonus set is to tell you what happened to me how I got around it. It wasn't as straightforward as it could have been, but I did get back in with the help of meta, and If it wasn't for getting meta verified, I Definitely wouldn't have got back in absolutely no way. So hopefully, this app has been of help to you and, of course you know, share this app, because there seems to be people out there at the moment who are getting hacked left, right and centre, and the thing is it's you know.
Speaker 1:
It's one of the worst things that can happen when you're in business, and this is why it's so important to have an email list. It's so, so important because you cannot rely on just having your business on social media, because your social media goes and you have no contact to any of those people. So if you have not built your email list out there, build your email list. I can't even stress to you enough. It is so, so important. It's one of the things that we are going to be covering On the female entrepreneur box, because it's a fundamental of business. It really, really is. Anyway, I will look forward to speaking to you all soon. Have a really lovely week and it's my birthday tomorrow, so I'm very excited and and yeah, have a really good week. Take care everyone. Bye.