Kitchener business owner calls for change after Facebook account hacked
Posted Aug 23, 2023 11:15:53 AM.
Last Updated Aug 23, 2023 11:29:35 AM.
A Kitchener small business owner is dealing with the aftermath of his Facebook account being hacked, and disabled.
Ian McMullan is a co-owner of McMullan’s Pub in Kitchener. Appearing on The Mike Farwell Show on Tuesday, he said that he received emails from Facebook warning of a security issue with his account.
He was able to get into his account with an old password and saw all the email addresses connected to his account.
“I tried removing those contact emails, as I was in, and as I was removing them, I saw different emails popping up,” McMullan said. “While I was removing emails, the hacker was adding their own.”
McMullan explained that ultimately his account was disabled by Facebook for fraud. However, the hacker was still able to get to his business account.
“Something the hackers have figured out to do is when an account gets disabled…they can connect part of your account to another one through the ad manager, and then still use it,” said McMullan.
Luckily, the account was not connected to any payment method as some small business accounts are. However, it is still frustrating to lose access to the account which has existed for 10 years.
“We have charity golf tournaments, that we were in the middle of doing registration, and prizes, and giveaways for it,” McMullan said. “I was not able to post about it anymore, stuff like that is frustrating.”
It has proven difficult for McMullan to get back into the account. He said Facebook has not provided much help in that regard, which is a problem, especially for those who are financially impacted by hacking.
“That’s a significant revenue stream, and if they take access away from you, unjustifiably or wrongly, and there’s no way for you to contest that, that’s not right. That needs to be corrected,” McMullan said.
He added that legislation similar to the data protection regulation that exists in Europe could be a solution.
