A Milwaukee woman is finding out that having a Facebook account can make you a target. Milwaukee resident Rachel Rivera wants to know just how hackers used her Facebook account to gain access to her savings account. Rivera claims that none of her banking information was linked to Facebook. This suggests that the hackers may have gained access to other accounts from her Facebook account which may have contained banking information.
The whole ordeal began for Rivera when friends alerted her after receiving a questionable link which Rivera says she never sent. The following day, Facebook notified her they had changed her password and Rivera discovered four transactions on her banking statement showing a total of $1,600 withdrawn.
“It’s just a puzzle because nobody has answers,” Rivera said. “My Facebook just has Rachel Rivera and my birthday. It doesn’t say the school or anything background about me.”
The Milwaukee woman claims her password was compromised of an entire sentence which no one else knew. Rivera says she intends to have her son delete her entire Facebook account. She fears hackers may attempt to withdraw even more funds. Her bank has given her a credit covering the lost $1,600.
While there are no foolproof ways to prevent what happened to Rivera, there are ways you can mitigate the dangers.
- Limit your online activities, especially activities that require an account such as social media.
- Create a strong password that’s comprised of lower and upper-case letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Use different passwords for every site that requires a login.
- Use a password manager.
- Activate two-factor authentication on all accounts that offer the feature.
- If you do have social media accounts, share as little
personal identifiable information as possible.
FBI Special Agent Lee Chartier says to prevent hacking, regular password changes should be routine. “People don’t realize how much information they have on the internet,” he said.
What do you think of this Milwaukee woman’s story? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://www.wistv.com/2018/11/06/hackers-access-womans-bank-account-withdraw-using-facebook/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: WIS News 10[/button]Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
