Imagine the following situation: It's a normal working day. You're sitting with your cup of coffee, ready to check your meta advertising account, when you notice something is wrong. You cannot access your account or it indicates that unusual activity is taking place. It's every business owner or marketer's nightmare - their account has been hacked!

How the crooks operate

  1. Phishing – the bait is set
    Scammers and fraudsters line our digital path through the Internet. The first step in their master plan is to send a phishing message. They pose as Meta themselves and claim that you have to log in for an important reason using a link they provide. Unsuspecting users end up on a fake login page, and the saved access data ends up directly in criminal hands.
  2. Mission accomplished – the phishing attempt was successful.
    The fraudsters use the stolen data to gain access to your advertising account. From now on, they can work under the guise of your identity, sometimes just by changing the password and removing other administrators to eliminate the real owner of the account.
  3. Finale – fraudulent advertisements
    Now the third act follows, in which the criminals reap the fruits of their labor. They place fraudulent advertisements to promote their dubious activities. When it comes to advertising budgets, they are anything but economical. The bill ultimately goes to you.

“Help, my advertising account has been hacked!” – What now?

Are you still in the account? Then proceed as follows:

  1. Write an email to Meta Support: Although it may take time to receive a response, this is the first step.
  2. Remove all means of payment: This is essential to avoid further debits.
  3. Disable any ongoing campaigns: If the hackers have already created a campaign, leave it standing so Meta can investigate it.
  4. Check your settings: The perpetrators may have changed rights or other settings, so check everything carefully. Make sure that no automatic activation for fraudulent advertising campaigns has been activated.
  5. Educate your employees: Anyone who has access to your company site should change their password.

Blocked account? How to proceed:

  1. Contact Meta Support: Use this link: https://www.facebook.com/hacked
  2. Notify your payment service provider: Have your payment method to which the advertising account is linked blocked to prevent further financial damage.
  3. Inform your team: Even if it's unlikely that anyone still has access to the account, everyone should be informed.

This is how you prepare yourself against access or takeover by criminals

Proactive rather than reactive – Protect your meta advertising account : To avoid the hassle and loss of time that comes with a hacked account, you should take a few steps:

  1. Enable two-factor authentication: This additional layer of security can make access more difficult for hackers.
  2. Manage access rights: Anyone who has access to your account is a potential gateway for hackers. Therefore, be extremely selective about who you give access to.
  3. Stay vigilant: Check for unusual activity on your account immediately and regularly check your email address on Have I Been Pwned to detect data breaches early.

Digitalization has revolutionized marketing. But it also presents us with new challenges. If we manage to overcome these challenges, we can concentrate on what is really important: delighting our customers and making our company successful!

Source:

Watchlist Internet

This might also be of interest:
HTML phishing: The new wave of cyber attacks
Data leak at Postbank and Deutsche Bank
The (unintentional) messages in our communication
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )