My first question these days seems to be, “Why aren’t humans being human?”
My personal, @LisaBorden Instagram account was hacked … some group of people from New York City, Toronto, and Moldova were logging in and having conversations with my friends and followers and posting about “my” financial successes. If you received any posts or stories, my apologies and it wasn’t me. The only financial advice I give is to invest in yourself.
I know I’m not alone in feeling violated when it comes to social media. I hope I’m not alone when I express how much my “Instagram friends” matter. To know someone else had control of personal relationships and interactions was super unsettling.
The positive: so many wonderful humans that I know in real life and virtual life reaching out in other ways to support me, to notify me, to offer help.
Multiple people connected me with others who had been hacked and found their way back. I told each of them when everything feels broken and wrong, feeling like there is something to do feels hopeful and that I would pay it forward and share what worked for me.
My heart goes out to anyone who has been or is currently hacked, as I know how deeply frustrating this can be. I am here to help as much as I can.
When I was locked out of my account, I responded to everyone who was messaging me and I also posted on my @BordenCommunications Instagram feed to let people know it wasn’t me. Communication is key.
After filling out all the forms and reports I could find in the Help Center … and then enlisting my kids help, asking those I knew or had been introduced to who had been hacked, searching YouTube for solutions, I ended up with a list of suggestions.
I’m not certain which actions helped most, but I got resolution (after 6 days) and believe that the below made recovery possible.
1/ Breathe … worry gets you nowhere fast, so believe in resolution and recovery!! (We wrote a book on this!)
2/ Keep sending screenshots of what you see when trying to log in and recover to security@mail.instagram.com and phish@instagram.com (multiple times a day).
3/ Big tip from May Lindstrom via friend and chocolate maker Stacey Burgess … contact Eva@fb.comand landon@fb.com directly and send the following:
- Name of your account
- Email used to originally create the account
- Current email, if different, that was last used
- A NEW email – one that has never been associated with either Facebook or Instagram. This is key as that is what they will redirect everything to, and where you’ll receive your (legitimate) password reset email. Bummer side note – their legitimate email does not look much more real than the fake ones so this is anxiety-producing throughout until it’s done.
I included more than this, including screenshots of the whole process, my efforts and emails to phish and security emails.
I never provided personal data to the hacker and didn’t have any third party apps on my account and this should not have happened. It is still not clear how the hacker was able to access and transfer my information. I have done changed my passwords and contact and ensured that two factor authentication is enabled.
Please reach out if there is anything we can do to support your efforts. We are here and reachable and want you to have the best outcome possible. Long exhales.
Sending calm and hope.
