You can imagine my surprise when I tried to access my Facebook account two days ago and I got a screen saying that my account had been blocked because there had been too many unauthorized attempts to access my account. My Facebook account was hacked. What can you do in the face of this same tragedy? Fortunately, Facebook has several safeguards in place to help you restore your account and message your friends again in no time.
All is not lost if you log into your account and get the same screen as me. I was more concerned about other accounts that I have that use the same username and password. The first screen basically indicates that Facebook needs to verify that you are the correct user for the account. Therefore, you must click a button to proceed to the next screen. The next screen you will see will show you the internet address and location where someone was trying to access your account. In my case, they showed me a little pin on a Google map in Auckland, New Zealand. Facebook asked if I was the one trying to log into my account from this location. Well, since I’ve never been to New Zealand, it couldn’t have been me. So, I clicked the button that said something like this is not me.
Next, I was given the option of how I would like to identify myself as the appropriate account owner. I could select an option to send a confirmation email to the registered email account and then go back to enter the activation code, or identify a series of photos of my friends. The first option was almost never an option. If my account had been hacked, how would I know if the person had already reset the email account and the activation code would lead in New Zealand? I chose to try option two and identify images of my friends. It should be noted that images of your accounts will be shown to your friends and not images of them in your account. If you think you cannot recognize your friends from a list of photos, you must select the first option of the activation code.
They walked me through a series of nine different friends and I was able to identify them all. Facebook granted me access to my account and I was immediately asked to change my password. After changing my password, Facebook instructed me to change the password on any other account that I may have that uses the same username and password. That was the whole process. So be careful and I suggest you change your password once a month to be safe.