A B.C. mom is warning others to be careful of scams on Facebook and other social media platforms after her profile — and 40 years of memories of her late son Tyler — were stolen in mere moments.
Janice Saulnier of Vernon, B.C. was in Calgary visiting family three weeks ago when she got a message, supposedly from her other son.
“I’m just trying to get my phone working, my new phone,” she said the message read. “‘The code’s not working. Is it ok if I get it sent to you, and you send it back to me?'”
Saulnier did, and moments later realized her mistake.
“I sent the code to the person to change my passwords,” she told Global News. “Within 15-to-20 minutes they had my account. I couldn’t get back in.”
Saulnier had lost access to her entire account, which included personal messages from her beloved son Tyler.
“I lost my son five years ago,” she said. “My connection with him on Facebook is full of memories and pictures and important things to me that help me heal.”
“I can’t re-friend request him — he won’t answer. These things can really cripple somebody’s healing journey.”
Saulnier said she did suspect something was fishy when she tried to call her son, who had supposedly messaged her, back. She said she also missed several emails from Facebook asking her if she had been the one to make the login or verification changes.
Once she caught on, she started contacting her contacts on the social media site. Turns out, they had already been contacted by the scammers.
Login or verification codes
Cybersecurity expert Jamie Hari told Global News asking for a login or verification code is one of the most popular cyber scams currently out there. Simply put, hackers trick you into thinking you’re giving them their code, when in fact they’re getting yours. Ultimately, that gives them access to change all of your passwords.
Hari, who is the Director of Cybersecurity Product Management at the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), said the hacker will also usually trick you into thinking they are someone close to you, so everyone should be vigilant of any message request.
“If a new message comes inbound assume the worst. Be paranoid about that inbound message,” he advised. “Instead, use a secondary mechanism to reach out to them.”
Hari said if they emailed you, Facebook them back. If they Facebooked you, call them back. He also warned about so-called “hack recovery experts” who profess to be able to get any profile back — for a price.
“The idea of paying ransom is a concept that in the cyber security industry we generally make the blanket advice — never pay,” he said.
He added what you’re actually doing is funding hackers and keeping them in business, perpetuating the problem. Plus, he said, there are no guarantees you’ll ever see your profile again or your money.
“Not only are you trusting a criminal with the honour system, but secondarily it’s possible that once they give you access again, they’ll just do it again.”
Hari suggested people keep all of their treasured materials in other places, such as on discs or even printed.
Saulnier told Global News she thought of that, but it was too late. She is still able to see Ty’s Facebook profile, but his messages to her are gone forever.
“I know hackers — they don’t care about this,” she said. “But perhaps if they realized it’s not just taking over an account – it’s taking away memories from people.”
Saulnier reached out to Facebook for help recovering her account but has not heard back. Global News has also reached out.
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