Has Your Facebook Been Hacked? How to Tell (And Fix It)
Logging into Facebook and discovering that your account has been hacked is not fun. However, it does happen, and the consequences for you, your friends, and family may be significant.
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to guard against Facebook hacks. And if it is hacked, there are also things you can do to fix the problem. Here’s how…
How to Identify If Your Facebook Account Was Hacked
The hack is typically easy to spot. Your profile can start placing advertisements on your friends’ pages urging them to purchase imitation Ray-Bans or other comparable items. Additionally, your Facebook account may have been hacked if it has changed your profile information, sent spam emails, or even your email address and password. All of these are undesirable situations that you should steer clear of.
Another typical Facebook hack involves sending your friends messages via Messenger that ask them to click on a link. When they do, their account will typically be compromised as well. Hacked accounts are risky for you, but they can also endanger your family and friends.
Fortunately, it’s simple to find out whether someone else has signed into your Facebook account.
Select Settings & Privacy from the menu, then select Security and Login. Click See More where You’re logged in. It will be clear from the information in this part where and on what devices you have logged in.
Keep in mind that if a hacker changed your password, you must act swiftly to restore access to your Facebook account.
The Fix: You may quickly cease the activity of that session if you do discover a discrepancy with where you’ve logged into Facebook. This should help protect you from any hacking attempts on that device. To be safe, you can log out of every session.
Check Your Payment History on Facebook
Checking your purchase history is another approach to determine if someone has hacked your Facebook account. It’s feasible for hackers to make fraudulent purchases and increase your bill if you have a credit card stored on your account.
Go to Settings and Privacy > Settings > Orders and payments, and verify under your activity here, which should be clearly visible, to make sure you’re protected. To see if a hacker bought advertisements, you can also check your Ads Payments section.
The Solution: Contact Facebook Support if you discover any erroneous charges. When it comes to responding to complaints, the business does a pretty decent job, whether it’s through its official Twitter account or its Facebook page.
How to Inform Facebook of Hack Attempts
You should let Facebook know if you experience any sort of hacking issues. Facebook is interested in learning about hacking attempts and wants to do its part in maintaining the site’s safety and security.
The Solution: You can contact Facebook by sending a message through your Support Inbox or using the company’s official Twitter account. Go to Settings > Support Inbox to find yours.
If you experience any further issues with your Facebook account and/or security, you may want to visit the Bullying Center, Safety Check, and Safety Center sites.
How to Protect Your Facebook Account
It’s best to understand how to stop would-be hackers from accessing your account before we reset your Facebook account. A few steps you may do to protect your Facebook account include improving your password, avoiding spam, and raising your privacy levels.
Use a Strong Password
You must choose a strong password that you can remember and is resistant to brute force attacks. Along with being practical, enabling fingerprint access is a wise security move.
There are a few more sophisticated solutions you should think about after you have taken care of the fundamentals. Under Settings > Security and login > Setting up extra security > Get alerts about unauthorized logins, you can enable email or login notifications.
You can also set up two-factor authentication in the security settings. Another effective deterrent to take into account is the requirement that a security code be entered when logging in from an unidentified device or browser.
How to Fix a Hacked Facebook Account
Don’t worry if your Facebook account has been compromised if it has been bad enough for you. The problem could be resolved.
In order to lessen the harm, you should:
- Change your Facebook password.
- Remove suspicious third-party applications.
- Alert your friends and family as soon as possible.
- Report the issue to Facebook via the company’s official channels.
