‘Sleepless nights’: Instagram hackers leave Northampton business owners to start from scratch

Four Northampton businesses have recently been hacked on Instagram after years of building up their profiles, which has left them to start from scratch.

These include Cloud 9 Event Hire, House of Dapper in Wellingborough Road, Julie Anna Flowers in Great Billing, and live band Mango Acoustic Duo.

Cloud 9 Event Hire’s Instagram account was hacked around three weeks ago, and owner Lisa Marriott says she was targeted through a customer’s account that had also been hacked.

Talking to Chronicle & Echo, Lisa, 39 from Kingsthorpe, said: “This has been a massive worry since it happened and I had over 50 calls and texts from worried friends and customers.

“I had sleepless nights over it, worrying the same thing was going to happen to others as links were being sent from my account.”

Julie Anna Flowers’ Instagram account was hacked after the owner, a friend of Lisa’s, believed it was her sending the links – when it was in fact the hacker of Cloud 9’s account.

When Lisa was first messaged from a customer’s account, she says it sounded “legitimate” and the messages were “written in the same way as they usually would be”.

The scam was based around being asked to help them get back into their account and a link was sent to Lisa’s phone via text by the hacker.

Without Lisa even clicking on the link and just taking a screenshot, the hacker managed to get into the Cloud 9 Event Hire account.

“Lots of emails were coming through and it was confusing,” said Lisa. “I had an email from Instagram saying they had noticed someone accessing my account from abroad, and to change my password.”

Seconds before Lisa finished changing her password and setting up two factor authentication, the hacker had changed all the details on her account – most importantly the phone number and email.

Lisa has compiled evidence, as she knows the email address of the hacker, and has shared it with Northamptonshire Police. It has “played on her mind” that because she messaged customers her bank details to pay her that the hacker might use this to their advantage.

Instagram was Lisa’s biggest social media platform with nearly 3,000 followers, as it acted as a visual catalogue of what she does and makes it easy for customers to choose what they would like.

The hacked businesses have had no support from Instagram, which “shocked” Lisa.

She said: “I assumed a platform that big would offer support, but there is no way to email or phone them.”

Lisa explained how the social media platform refers you to a help centre, but this was unable to offer advice for when the account details, such as email and phone number, have already been changed.

The business owner was asked to take a selfie, but as the account was used for work and there were no images of Lisa, she was told they could not verify it.

Lisa read online that some hacked business owners have had luck on occasions, but is yet to be successful despite trying more than 20 times.

Cloud 9 Event Hire’s new Instagram account, which you can access here, has been launched for around a week and has exceeded 200 followers.