Local business owner loses access to his Facebook account after being hacked

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – The latest data from Pew Research shows that nearly 70% of American adults use Facebook. Some use it for personal reasons. Others use it to sell their products.

Within seconds, hackers can take control of your accounts. Now a Lincoln business owner who relies on social media can’t recover her account.

Haley Reed owns H.Flynn Designs in Lincoln. She spent the last eight years building her business page on Facebook, and within moments she lost full access.

It was a normal Saturday for Reed. She was at home with her children when her husband sent her a screenshot. His Facebook profile picture has been replaced with an ISIS flag.

“I opened Facebook immediately and before I could even look up a password, I was logged out of my Facebook account.” said Reed.

Unable to log in, she lost access not only to her personal account, but also to her business page for H. Flynn Designs. Reed said she lost thousands of dollars in sales over the past three days.

“For someone to go on Facebook and be able to not only hack, but post horrible content on my page, and I may never see my business page that I’ve built over the past eight years, it’s It’s like my biggest nightmare,” Reed said.

Reed said she went through every avenue to regain access to her account, but only received automated emails from Facebook.

“You’d think they’d have a chat center or like an email or a phone number or some kind of customer service, but there’s nothing,” Reed said.

She said she spent over $500 seeking help. A company in Norway could not help him. Reed even bought an Oculus virtual headset and contacted Oculus support. That didn’t work either.

“This is all driving me crazy,” Reed said. “I just want my accounts back. I just want to be able to post to my business account. I just want to get back to my normal job.

10/11 NOW checked with Reed and she said her access is still blocked. She encourages others to have someone else as an admin on your business page, so they’ll still have access if you get hacked.

Experts also said it was important to use two-factor authentication.

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