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TECHNOLOGY
Your Facebook Account Was Hacked. Getting Help May Take Weeks – Or $299
By Shannon Bond | NPR, All Things Considered | August 2, 2021
Angela McNamara’s first hint that her Facebook account had been hacked was an early-
morning email warning someone was trying to log into her account.
“If this is not you, don’t worry, we’re keeping your account safe,” she recalls the email from
Facebook saying. But her relief only lasted a minute, when another email arrived, saying her
password had been changed. Then another, notifying her that a two-factor authentication – an
extra layer of security – had been set up for her account.
“And then from there I’m just like, OK, it is gone,” said McNamara, who lives outside
Toronto. She tried Facebook’s automated process to recover her account: getting a backup
code, resetting her password. But nothing worked.
This has been happening to a lot of people lately, and the experience has left many users
nearly as frustrated with the social network as they are with the hackers. In July, NPR
received 19 emails from listeners complaining that their Facebook accounts had been hacked
or disabled. People share similar tales of woe on Reddit forums and Twitter every day.
Some became so desperate they shelled out hundreds of dollars to buy a virtual reality
headset in an attempt to get Facebook to restore their accounts.
When she tried to reach Facebook, “Nobody got back to me, not once”
Before going to extremes, many hacking victims try the usual routes to get customer service
but quickly find out it seems impossible to reach someone at Facebook to help fix the
problem.
“Facebook didn’t have a phone number to call. There was no email to email,” said Jessie
Marsala, who lives outside Chicago and emailed NPR in early July about her situation.
When Marsala got hacked, she tried dialing Facebook’s headquarters in Silicon Valley. But
that number yields a recording that says, “Unfortunately we do not offer phone support at this
time.”
Instead, Facebook tells users to report hacked accounts through its website. The site instructs
them to upload a copy of a driver’s license or passport to prove their identities. But the people
NPR spoke with said they had trouble with every step of this automated process and wish
Facebook would offer a way to reach a real person.
“I sent these forms in morning, noon and night multiple times a day,” Marsala said. “Nobody
got back to me, not once.”
Victoria Floriani of Jersey City, N.J., only got Facebook’s system to accept her driver’s
license after she covered up everything but her name and photo with a Post-it note – a tip she
came across on Reddit. After two weeks of trying, it was the breakthrough she needed to get
her account back.
Facebook said because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has fewer people available to review
IDs. It uses artificial intelligence, too, but its help center warns that reviews “may take longer
than usual.”
Facebook spokesperson Gabby Curtis told NPR in a statement that the company’s help center
is available 24 hours a day to assist people with problems and report issues. But Curtis
acknowledged, “We also know that we need to keep improving in this area and plan to invest
more in the future.”
A solution for those willing to pay $299
Brandon Sherman of Nevada City, Calif., followed a tip he found on Reddit to get his hacked
account back.
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“I ultimately broke down and bought a $300 Oculus Quest 2,” he said. Oculus is a virtual
reality company owned by Facebook but with its own customer support system.
Sherman contacted Oculus with his headset’s serial number and heard back right away. He
plans to return the unopened device, and while he’s glad the strategy worked, he doesn’t
think it’s fair.
“The only way you can get any customer service is if you prove that you’ve actually
purchased something from them,” he said.
When McNamara, the Facebook user in Canada, first heard about the Oculus trick, she
thought it was a joke. But she said, “Once I started thinking about it, all my memories, I
really realized that I wanted to do whatever possible to get it back.”
So she, too, ordered an expensive gadget she never planned to use and returned it as soon as
she got back into her Facebook account.
(A warning to anyone thinking about trying this – other Reddit users have said they tried
contacting Oculus support but were unable to get their Facebook accounts restored. Also, last
week Facebook said it was temporarily halting sales of the Oculus Quest 2, which retails
starting at $299, because its foam lining caused skin irritation for some customers.)
Hacking victims fear losing money and memories
Losing Facebook may seem like a minor thing, but it can have real consequences.
“The very first concern, after realizing that I was getting hacked, is that these folks might be
able to gain access to my business’s bank account,” said Ben Coleman in Fall River, Mass.
“That would be a disaster.”
Coleman’s day job is teaching math and technology to kindergarteners through 12th-graders,
but he also films videos with drone cameras and writes books about how to fold origami
bonsai trees. For both ventures, he relies on Facebook to reach customers.
Coleman managed to lock his Facebook account before the hackers could gain control. But
he wasn’t able to unlock it – so he lost access to everything.
For Jon Morgan in Shepherd, Mich., it got worse. Hackers used his Facebook account to
vandalize the page he helps manage for his town’s maple syrup festival. Facebook disabled
Morgan’s account – so now he’s lost access to a lot of family photos, including of his son
who passed away this year.
Morgan said the episode has made him realize just how embedded Facebook is in his life.
“We think of it as a kind of like a plaything or something for fun, but people share news on it,
people get their news from it, it’s a photo album,” he said. “I think what I’ve kind of learned
from my experience is, I really need to think about how I’m using it ... and what it means to
me to lose it.”
After NPR got in touch with Facebook, it sent Coleman and Marsala links to unlock their
accounts, and is giving Morgan another chance to appeal the disabling of his account.
What’s fueling hacking? Financial gain – and even disinformation campaigns
Facebook said it has not seen a recent uptick in hacking, and it’s not clear who is behind the
hacks people contacted NPR about.
Many attempts to hack social media accounts are financially motivated, said Jon Clay, vice
president of threat intelligence at cybersecurity firm Trend Micro.
A hacker may try to scam the user’s friends and contacts to give them money, he said, or sell
accounts on the black market.
Clay said other hackers want to steal Facebook accounts to spread disinformation, whether
it’s about the 2020 election, COVID-19 or something else entirely.

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“The fact that social media is now a big part of everybody’s lives [means] it is a major
target,” he said.
Editor’s note: Facebook is among NPR’s financial supporters.

Download the audio file at

https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-
mp3/npr/atc/2021/08/20210802_atc_reddit_can_be_more_helpful_than_facebooks_own_cust
omer_service_for_hacked_accounts.mp3

*TRANSCRIPT:
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Here at ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, we get all kinds of comments from listeners. They
tell us they liked a story, or they didn’t like a story or we should cover more news about
dinosaurs. Recently, ________, we started getting a lot of comments like this.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I got an email at 5:02 saying somebody was trying to get
into my Facebook ________.
KELLY: And this.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I was ________. I had no one else to ________ because
Facebook didn’t have a phone number to call. There was no email to email.
KELLY: Their Facebook ________ had been hacked, and they were ________. We asked
NPR tech ________ Shannon Bond to ________. And a note – Facebook is among NPR’s
________ ________.
SHANNON BOND, BYLINE: One morning back in May, Angela McNamara woke up in
Toronto to a foreboding email from Facebook.
ANGELA MCNAMARA: And it said, Angela, it appears that somebody is trying to
________ into your ________. If this is not you, don’t worry – we’re keeping your ________
safe.
BOND: But that wasn’t all.
MCNAMARA: So that came at, like, let’s say 2:58 – 2:59 it says, your ________ has been
changed. Another email, 3:00 a.m., two-factor authentication has been ________ up. And
then from there, I’m just like, OK, it is gone.
BOND: She’d been hacked. She tried to stay ________ and started going through Facebook’s
process to ________ her ________. She tried getting a ________ code, resetting her
________. Nothing worked. This has been happening to a lot of people ________. And when
it does happen, good luck trying to call up Facebook to fix it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (As automated voice) Thank you for calling Facebook user
________. Unfortunately, we do not offer phone support at this time.
BOND: There’s no simple way to reach a real person by email, either. Instead, the company
tells users to report hacked ________ through its website, where they’re asked to upload a
copy of a driver’s ________ or passport to ________ their ________. And many people who
try it say this automated process often just doesn’t work, like Jessie Marsala in Chicago.
JESSIE MARSALA: I spent hours and hours filling out these request forms. I sent these
forms in morning, ________ and night, ________ times a day, and nobody got back to me,
not once.

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BOND: Another person I talked to only got Facebook’s system to accept her ________ after
she covered up everything but her name and photo with a Post-it note. Facebook says because
of the pandemic, it has fewer people available to ________ ________. It uses ________
________, too, but it says the process is taking longer than usual. Now, losing Facebook may
seem like a ________ thing, but Marsala has been using the social network since high school.
And every morning she likes to look at its memories feature, which ________ old posts.
MARSALA: And that’s just a way I used to like to start my day and kind of ________ on,
you know, what I did two years ago or what was I thinking seven years ago, just kind of see,
you know, are my thoughts still the same? Do I still have the same ________ on life? Things
like that.
BOND: So this is a big deal to her, and she and other people in her situation, since they can’t
turn to Facebook, they’re turning to each other. On websites like Twitter and Reddit, lots of
people are sharing stories of being hacked and tips about what to do. One of them is Ben
Coleman, a teacher in Massachusetts who has a side hustle writing books that teach you how
to ________ origami bonsai trees.
BEN COLEMAN: The very first ________ after realizing that I was getting hacked is that
these ________ might be able to ________ ________ to my business’s bank ________, and
that would be a disaster.
BOND: He managed to lock his Facebook ________ before the hackers could get in, but he
wasn’t able to unlock it. That is, until after NPR got in touch with Facebook. The company
says it has not seen a recent uptick in hacking. And ________ experts I spoke with say there’s
lots of reasons hackers target Facebook ________ – selling them on the black market,
scamming users’ friends for money. Some even use hacked ________ to push out
disinformation. But the people I talked to aren’t just ________ with the hackers. They’re
unhappy with Facebook, too.
COLEMAN: I want Facebook to have a customer service department that some old 86-year-
old lady can call up and say, my ________ has been hacked – please help me get back in. I
want a human being on the telephone.
BOND: A Facebook ________ says its online help center is available at any time, but the
company knows it needs to improve and plans to ________ more in customer support.
________, some people are going to extreme ________ to get their ________ back. It turns
out Facebook does offer better customer service, but to get it, you need to buy a ________
________ headset made by Oculus, a company Facebook owns. Brandon Sherman in
California did just that.
BRANDON SHERMAN: I ________ broke down and bought a $300 Oculus ________ 2,
have it sitting in the box right here next to me. And as soon as I emailed customer support
with the ________ number, I got an ________ response.
BOND: Sherman plans to return the unopened Oculus. And while he’s ________ the strategy
worked, he doesn’t think it’s very fair.
SHERMAN: Unfortunately, what’s happening to a lot of people is, like, the only way you can
get any customer service is if you ________ that you’ve actually ________ something from
them.
BOND: Up in Toronto, Angela McNamara heard about the Oculus ________ on Reddit and
thought it was a joke, but she ________, why not? So, like Sherman, she ordered an
expensive gadget she never planned to use and ________ customer support for Oculus.
MCNAMARA: I did kind of what everybody else did – bought it, didn’t open it and returned
it.
BOND: And just like that, she was back on Facebook.
Shannon Bond, NPR News.
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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1023801277/your-facebook-account-was-hacked-
getting-help-may-take-weeks-or-299