Someone Stole My Facebook Account, And This Is How I Got It Back

The other day I tried to get into my Facebook account when I got an error message saying I had typed in the wrong password. I knew the password wasn’t wrong, but I humoured Facebook and typed it in again.

Again, the same error message telling me that the password was incorrect.

Now I was confused.

I tried resetting the password when I noticed my email had been changed on my Facebook. This was when I knew that something terrible had happened. Someone hacked my account and changed the password and email.

I tried everything that Facebook advised me to do, but I couldn’t get access to my account.

One website that I read stated that my account had been stolen and that there was nothing that I could do to fix the issue. According to that website, all was lost, and I should create a new Facebook account.

I wasn’t ready to give up.

How I Got Back Into My Facebook Account

I emailed Facebook support at support@fb.com and explained my situation.

Every time I tried logging in and sending a code to my email, it went to the email they created. It was useless, and I ended up temporarily disabling the feature because I had used it too many times.

Then I checked my emails to see if Facebook notified me of the email and password change. This was when I thought I had found a solution.

Sure enough, three emails notifying me of the changes.

The key was the button at the bottom of each email. It’s a button that says, “This wasn’t me.”

I was excited when I saw this button because I thought this was the answer to fixing my hacked account. All I had to do was click the button, and BAM! Fixed. At least, that was the hope.

I clicked the button, but a page said they couldn’t recognize the browser associated with my Facebook account- this was Safari. I copied the link and pasted it into Chrome to try again but got the same result.

I was deflated.

My last hope was a flop. I had to wait to see if Facebook would respond to my email.

One Last Chance

I went to bed and started to search the internet to see how people steal Facebook passwords. The #1 way hackers get Facebook passwords is malware. This intrigued me.

I jumped out of bed and downloaded a virus/malware scanner on my Macbook Pro. Just in case I was a victim of malware.

When I looked for the malware scanner app I downloaded, I noticed one more browser on my Mac – Firefox.

I copied the button link from the email and hit enter. This time it recognized my browser and allowed me to change my email.

I had to identify myself by uploading my ID to Facebook, but within a couple of minutes, I got an email saying this:

Done.

I had successfully recovered my stolen account from the grip of being lost forever.

Protect Your Account From Being Hacked

Once I returned to my Facebook account, I made some changes to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

I went into Settings & Privacy by clicking my profile picture.

I then went to access your information and then security and login information. I went to active sessions and logged everyone out.

Next, I went to the account center, clicked on two-factor authentication, and enabled it.

I added my cell phone to my account.

Now, if someone wants to log in to my account, they must also have my cell phone.

These changes and a new password made me confident that my account was safe.

Conclusion

If your account has been hacked, all is not lost.

You have to act now.

Send Facebook an email explaining the situation and then follow the steps I took in this article. If possible, change your password by sending a code to your email.

If the hacker also changed your email, find the email stating the change.

The most important part is taking action before you get hacked. Secure your account now so an event like this doesn’t ruin your day.