On Oct, 22 Rachel Rivera’s friends called her letting her know her Facebook account was hacked. She said the very next day, someone made four withdrawals from her savings account, totaling $1,600.
“That’s what I want answers for, how did they do it?” said Rivera.
Rivera said it started when her friends received this strange link from her on Facebook. She said she never sent that.
The very next day, she said Facebook sent her an email saying her password has been reset. She said that was another red flag. She never asked for it to be reset.
“As of today, my son is going to come and just delete me from Facebook because it’s just too scary,” said Rivera.
While Special Agent Lee Chartier with the FBI isn’t handling Rivera’s case, he explained to prevent hacking regular password changes should be routine.
“It can be fairly complicated. It depends on the strength of the password, the platform they are going after,” said Chartier.
“People don’t realize how much information they have on the internet,” he said.
Rivera said her password was a sentence and no one knows it but her. She also said she doesn’t have any bank information tied to her account.
“My Facebook just has Rachel Rivera and my birthday, it doesn’t say the school or anything background about me,” said Rivera.
Rivera’s bank has temporarily credited her $1,600.
TODAY’S TMJ4 reached out to Facebook about Rivera’s story. A spokesperson for he social media site provided the following response:
- We encourage users to not accept suspicious requests and to report suspicious messages using the easy-to-find links across our service. We work to educate our community through reporting flows and the Help Center. More information is available in our Help Center.
- If you see a post or message that tries to trick you into sharing personal information or sending money, please report it using the tools we provide.
- If you think your account is hacked, please visit https://www.facebook.com/hacked to learn how to fix it.
- We have more security-related advice and tools available on our Privacy Basics site.
You can also file an internet complaint with the FBI.
