A woman said she lost her entire online life after being the victim of a cyber attack.
Sian Roberts, from Leasowe, said she noticed on Friday, October 7, that her Facebook account started to “act strangely”. Shortly after this the 30-year-old said she received a notification which said someone had accepted a friend request.
Sian, who runs a dog walking business, said she did not send the friend request nor did she know who this person was. She received a further notification to say her account had uploaded videos, which she did not do.
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Before Sian could even see what was uploaded, she said her account was suspended due to disturbing and inappropriate videos and pictures. Speaking to the ECHO, Sian said: "My whole Facebook account is now disabled and I can't access it at all.
"I've lost years of memories, but more importantly access to my business page which was linked. I had 1.1k followers on this page and it has taken five years to build up. I rely a lot on this page for advertising and running my business."
Sian claims she tried all the links on the Facebook help centre to try and regain access to her account, but claims they do not work because the account is banned.
She added: "I just get a screen telling me that I've gone against community standards and its going round in circles. There's no option at all to call and speak to an actual human being in order to tell them exactly what's happened and prove that it was not me.
"I tried to report the page as hacked, but again I get the same message that my account is disabled. It's a nightmare."
After hours of researching, Sian said she managed to submit a request to review. However, she claims it said due to coronavirus "there are less people able to review accounts so they may be unable to".
The dog walker said she now has 30 days before her account is permanently deleted "with no way to appeal". Her only hope is the account will be reviewed in time.
Sian told the ECHO : "Just to add to the blow, my Instagram business page has also disappeared as it was all linked. About 90% of my customers come through social media and now I'm completely unable to reply to any enquiries.
"It is not as easy as making a new account, as I had a large amount of followers and five star reviews, as well as thousands of photos. New customers look for this type of thing when choosing a walker to care for their dog.
"They want to see how well established the walker is and how well reviewed they are. I'm potentially going to loose all of that. I also post photos of each dog walk on the account because current customers enjoy seeing their dogs having fun. I think this is what attracted a lot of my customers to using me.
"I can't sleep at night worrying whether people saw the content posted on my page by the hacker. I don't want people thinking it was me posting. It has caused so much distress, worry and potentially a loss in business. I don't think you realise how much upset this type of incident can cause until you experience it. It's very unnerving that someone was sat with my profile up on their screen."
Sian said if there was a person to call at Meta - who own Facebook and Instagram - directly it would give people like Sian "a little reassurance" and provide an opportunity to explain her circumstances. She claims she has read other similar cases to hers.
The small business owner said she accidentally opened "a suspicious looking email earlier that day" and thinks this is how the hackers "got in". She added: "I know not to click on dodgy looking mail, but did so by mistake. I would urge everyone to be extra cautious when opening emails sent by unknown senders.
"I didn't click on any links, literally just opened that one email and it seems that's all it takes."
When the ECHO contacted Meta for a statement they said they were investigating the matter.
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