Langdon resident Chantelle Mackney has found herself starting over to build her home-based business after hackers targeted her personal, non-profit, and business social media platforms.

“Our non-profit Facebook Page received a message that we had engaged in some less than ideal activities and that they had flagged our account and they needed to verify me, but in the meantime, they would shut us down until they could figure out what was happening.”

Mackney said that everything looked legitimate, with the message appearing to originate from Facebook Business Suite, the icon that matched the link looked normal.

The message also stated that if they did not verify their page, which they had done on other occasions, their account would be suspended. Mackney said their team has worked so hard to build up their non-profit that she, unfortunately, clicked the link and filled out the information.

“Within 20 minutes everything was gone, they got access to my account through that link. 

"I'm not sure what their intentions were, but they went to my business account first did a whole bunch of name changes, they did icon changes, and a redirection that talked about cryptocurrency from my understanding, based on the reviews that I now have on my page.”

Along with this her page was scheduled for deletion, Mackney notes that once they had done this to her business page they moved to her non-profit page Justice For Bullies, “Because I had other administrators on that page they were unable to do that there.”

Justice for Bullies is a nonprofit that promotes responsible dog ownership and breed-neutral legislation across Canada, they are responsible for many communities in Canada removing breed-specific legislation from their animal control bylaws. They also have a dog bite prevention programs where they've taught approximately 3,000 kids in Langdon and the surrounding area dog bite prevention. 

Mackney said that whoever hacked her did attempt to make changes to her non-profit accounts but they were caught and shut down, but not before her business and personal pages were gone.

This happened over 3 weeks ago and with no recourse, Mackney has found herself left out in the cold trying to figure out what to do next, “I'm still fighting to get my business page back at this point it remains unpublished.  I can see everything. I can see all the changes that the hackers did, but nobody can actually use my business page anymore.”

The thought of trying to rebuild her business from the ground up is very daunting, the small silver lining for Mackney is that Justice for Bullies and the 73,000 followers they amassed over the years is still active.

The biggest frustration that Mackney has faced aside from the initial hack has been trying to deal with the social media platform.

She explains that there is truly no customer support for those who rely heavily on social to build their brand and their business, stating that she has gone through the help links but there is no one she can speak directly to so she can know her options.

Mackney did state that she received an email that said her business account would be reactivated within five business days and today is day five and so far nothing, however, even if they are reinstated the page all of the negative reviews that have been posted on that page will remain. Stating that because her page was linked to the cryptocurrency site people have left reviews about her being a fraud.

For Mackney though it is not just about the page, it is about her clients, their memories that were linked to those pages, photos of their animals, the educational pieces she posted, and the work that went into building her brand, that is gone and has been tarnished and the thought of having to start all over is daunting.

“It's really hard though because we all tend to use these social media platforms.  Websites are great don't get me wrong, but when anyone is looking for help they go to their community Facebook pages for it. When you no longer have an account that can be tagged and you no longer have a way that people can get a hold of you, it's quite devastating, especially to small businesses.”

A certified professional dog trainer and dog walker Mackney through her business For Fluff’s Sake also offers pet sitting said she has asked everyone she knows to tag Facebook, Instagram, and Meta in their posts to try to get their attention. Through that, she said she has received messages from people daily who have unfortunately been in the same situation she has and so far has found no one who has had their social media restored.

Since this has happened Mackney has created a page to update people on what happened as she lost the ability to connect with clients and her community through her other pages. Her advice to those who have business accounts is simple.

“Make sure that you have a second person administrating any of your business pages. If you have somebody else on there, they have to remove them as admin and a whole bunch of passwords have to be entered and verifications have to take place in order for them to do that.”

That was the only saving grace with the Justice for Bullies Facebook pages were the other admins so they were unable to take that before Facebook shut them down.

“I don't wish this on anybody and I guess my recommendation would be to anybody that hears this is to backup your information on a hard drive or an online storage and do it again on something different because I had everything on an external hard drive and it crashed and so I lost everything there as well.”

Uncertain at this time if and when she will need to start over, the concern for Mackney is that she may not be able to use her same business name across social media, as she explained a second with the same name could be flagged as a person impersonating another page.

Mackney said she truly feels for those across the world who rely on social media for their businesses, for their connections with their family members, for their nonprofits and that in a blink of an eye it can be gone with no chance of getting it back. Moving forward she will be more careful and hopes her story can help those who hear it to not fall into the same trap.