Christine Castle is fighting with Facebook to prove that she is in fact, Christine Castle.
Castle has been locked out of her personal Facebook account for two weeks now, starting back on April 1. But don’t wait for the “April Fools” punchline, it won’t come.
Castle first noticed a problem when her friends started sending her messages, asking about a prank she was pulling on her Facebook page. They sent her screenshots, showing her profile with a new profile picture; someone that wasn’t her.
Whoever took control of Castle’s Facebook account changed her name, profile picture, phone number and email address. The only thing kept the same was her cover photo.
The hacker, now acting on the social media platform as Christine Castle, sent her friends requests for money.
“I don’t know that I could necessarily take back control of the account, but if I could at least get it shut down that could limit what else could happen,” said Castle.
Castle has tried getting back into her account, but the email and password for the account have been changed. She also hadn’t set up the website’s two-step verification: where users can get a security code sent to their personal phone.
Marc Laliberte, a security expert at Watchguard Technologies, says Castle was probably the victim of a not-yet-public data breach.
“When it comes to getting locked out of your accounts, most times they ask you to prove who you are,” explains Laliberte.
But Castle has already tried that.
“There is a page that you can report a personal hack, but what it does is it sends you in a loop and you cannot actually reach out to customer service,” said Castle.
