From Jennifer Marohasy

January 21, 2024 By jennifer 

We have been friends for some 20 years, she used to edit Online Opinion (and I used to write for it), when she lived in Brisbane – we both once lived in Brisbane, in Chelmer. Now Susan lives on Norfolk Island that is rather a long way to the East.

Norfolk Island is an Australian territory in the South Pacific Ocean, with pine trees, jagged cliffs, sandy beaches include Emily Bay, where Susan swims most days on the low tide.

Susan still provides writing, editing and proofreading services, and she also swims in Emily Bay, with the corals and fishes.

Over the last few years she hasn’t been selfish about this adventure, rather sharing photographs of the fishes, a pregnant eagle ray, and a growing problem with water quality with us via what had become a most wonderful resource and community Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/norfolkislandtime

Then last week, her Facebook was hacked, and while the site is still sitting there, Susan has lost control of it.

They were not interested in the fishes.

But rather that this page, her Facebook page, links to her writing page that links to PayPal.

The scam has apparently been going for three years at least what happened to Susan is exactly what was reported by Channel 9 as happening to other small businesses that long ago, with the same amount of money debited in the same way:

It took just 15 minutes for hackers to infiltrate Sydney single mum Sarah McTaggart’s Facebook page.

From there, they also took control of the account she uses to run her small business, wiping out 90 percent of the client base she has been building up for the past four years – almost in an instant.

Their target? The PayPal account she uses to buy Facebook ads for her business.

The professional IT advice that Susan has got is that this Facebook page is now lost to her control forever unless she can get the attention of Facebook administration.

It seems there is no way to get in touch with Facebook administration directly, so much for customer service. Susan had asked me to register a complaint from my Facebook account, but I can only report her page as ‘impersonating’ her, when what has happened is ‘identify theft’, that is not listed as an option.

I don’t want her Facebook account shut down, but rather handed back.

Susan has updated me:

I’m trying not to get too down about it. No help forthcoming yet apart from other scammers. I had an IT guy round here a few hours ago and he reckons it’s gone and without Facebook getting in touch with me regarding one of my reports I won’t be able to retrieve it.

I’ve reached out to anyone who I think is influential and may know someone who may be able to help, but no responses as yet.

No responses from Facebook either to any of the various reports that were submitted.

No phone number (well there is one, but they don’t answer it!).

No email address for Facebook.

And then I got a $320 charge from Meta (Facebook) via PayPal. It seems back in 2013 I linked PayPal to Facebook for some advertising for my Write-now business. So the hacker was able to make a charge.

PayPal say the charge is legitimate because it comes from my account (even though I don’t control it any longer!).

I’d already changed my bank passwords, and cancelled my card, so they won’t be able to do it again. I’ve also removed any linked cards from PayPal now, too.

As the IT guy said, it is now a case of pulling up the drawbridge! I’ve done a full computer scan and no trojans or whatever. So now I am filing fish photos, because at least that makes some sense!

One thing this has all brought home to me is how interconnected, interdependent, and beholden we are to the big IT companies like Facebook, PayPal etc etc.

Susan has emailed contact@9news.com.au, amongst others.

And she has explained to them:

My Messenger has also been taken over. As have my other linked pages (Write-now! is one). My deep concern is that those nearly 10,000 followers on Norfolk Island Time trust in my page and now they, too, are exposed to a hacker.

Fortunately, the fishes and the corals are unconnected, still under the waves at Emily Bay.

How many Facebook pages like Susan’s, replete with beautiful photographs of fishes, or something else, are now controlled by scammers – and what might they plan to do with a page like this into the future?

In the first instance this may be Susan’s worry. But if we truly care about community, it is all our problem, for sure.