Someone Has Hacked My Facebook Account, What Do I Do?

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Facebook Hacking

There’s a lot of talk today about how to protect your computer from malware, hackers and SPAM. And while we do our best to fend off those demons, the attacks on our email, social media and other online Internet accounts are relentless.

A friend recently posted this message on her Facebook wall:

“My boyfriend’s Facebook account has been hacked and they’re sending messages to all of his friends. Does anyone know how to stop this?”— Cara Lundgren.

Cara, having your email or Facebook account hijacked can be a traumatic if not a costly and time consuming experience if things really get out of hand. We contacted Jason Bigham, a Clawson-based IT Consultant and owner of Jabtech, who had some tips for your boyfriend.

Step 1: Change Your Password

Bigham said the first thing he needs to do is immediately change his Facebook account password as well as his email and all other known Internet account passwords.

“Changing your password can correct up to 99 percent of his problems when somebody's Facebook account gets hacked,” he said.

The most common web hacks today are called “Spoofing.” It’s when a spammer has accessed your email account and is sending out messages that appear to be coming from you. Lately it’s been a Facebook looking link to see a picture of yourself or a video that you are in.

The unsuspecting recipient clicks on a link they believe is from you, and then they either download a virus or malware, or in less perilous cases, they are simply suckered into an looking at an advertisement for antivirus software or Viagra.

Step 2: Report the Incident

Report the hack to both your email service provider and to Facebook, or any other social network site that may have been affected. There are SPAM/hacker reporting sites that help reduce the attacks on the internet as well, including www.spamcop.com and at all of the major email services including AOL, Yahoo, Google and others.

“Submit the entire email with the header intact,” Bigham said. “That will tell them where the email originated from and if they determine it to be a spammer, they will shut down that account.”

Step 3: Do a Virus/Malware Scan

The next important step is doing a virus or malware scan to determine if your machine has been compromised. If so, clean out any viruses or malware that has infected your computer. This may be too complex for some and may require a computer professional.

Step 4: Delete New Applications

If that has not eliminated the problem, there is a final possibility that a malware or hacker is still accessing your account from an application, such as the "Valentine’s Day App" and "See Who Views You the Most App."

If that appears to be the case, Bigham said, start closing out and deleting the most recent Facebook applications he’s installed. A lot of Facebook applications tend to request access to your basic and personal information which begin a firestorm of attacks from several different paths.

Step 5: Inform Your Friends

Once the threat is contained, it would also be a good idea for your boyfriend to send a brief email to everyone in his address book alerting them of the breach and apologizing for any inconvenience and following up with a similar Facebook post.

Make sure they delete any suspicious emails they might have received form him.

Our thanks to Jason Bigham for his expert advice. He can be reached at support@jabtech.net or www.jabtech.net.