Facebook wouldn't remove hacker from Bay Area woman's account -- until she paid Meta for help
ANTIOCH, Calif. (KGO) -- It's happened to yet another Bay Area viewer. An East Bay woman tried to log into her Facebook account only to find a hacker had taken control and was scamming her friends. Facebook and its parent company Meta provided no help to kick the scammer out -- that is, until she agreed to pay for their help.
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Facebook and Instagram users have long complained it's nearly impossible to recover stolen accounts. There's no customer service phone number to call. The online help pages send them in circles. This woman became so frustrated she marched down to Meta's headquarters in Menlo Park and banged on the door. Still no help - until she agreed to buy a subscription for customer service.
Tova Ridgway of Antioch recalls how she was tricked into giving a hacker control of her Facebook page.
"I thought I was talking to my stepmother. It wasn't. It was the hacker," Tova Ridgway said. "It was insane."
The hacker changed the email and password to Ridgway's account, then pretended to be Ridgway.
"Sending messages to all of my friends such as, 'I need money,' or 'Can you do me a favor?'" she said.
MORE: Bay Area man lost his wife, then got scammed. Now Facebook won't stop the hacker
For months, the imposter used her page to sell items that don't exist.
"An Acura for $1,400, all my dad's things like a mower, a bed... an estate sale, or something," Ridgway said.
Worst of all, Ridgway and her husband lost access to years of memories. "My dad, my best friend, my memories of my kid, me and my husband," she said.
"Tova was a mess for months," said her husband Jim.
Ridgway tried to retrieve her account using Facebook's automated help page. It did email a reset code, but it went straight to the imposter's email.
Friends tried reporting the fraud, but the reply kept saying: "This content does not go against our community standards."
"I'm like OK, this is -- I've had enough, I'm really stressed out," Ridgway said. "So I jumped in the car and I ran down to Hacker Way."
She drove straight to the Meta headquarters in Menlo Park. She was stopped at the door.
"They're like, 'I'm sorry, I can't do anything about this.' I go, 'Are you telling me you don't have anyone working for hacked pages? This happens every day.' And she said, 'No, I'm sorry, there isn't,'" Ridgway said.
MORE: Mysterious hacker turns out to be victim's own brother, 7 On Your Side investigation reveals
They handed her a piece of paper with a QR code -- which sent her straight back to the unhelpful robot.
"For a big company like that, knowing people get hacked every day, thousands of people getting hacked, you would think they would have somebody you could actually talk to -- but they don't," she said.
Ridgway was about to stage a picket outside the Meta building, when she found a surprising way to get her account back.
The tech giant has rolled out "Meta Verified," a concierge-style service meant to protect the accounts of big stars and big business.
But for $14.99 per month, any users can get basic service with access to a live agent.
"They have to verify that it's you," she said. "You actually talk to a live person... It got me right in!"
Ridgway said users should not have to pay to get help, but in desperation, she did. She paid $14.99 for a month of Meta Verified.
The result was instantaneous.
Instead of a machine spitting an automated reply, a live agent came on chat!
The agent wrote, "Hi Tova, this is Leandra from the Meta support team. How can I help you today?"
Ridgway typed, "My Facebook got hacked."
The agent replied, "That sounds really frustrating. Please be assured that I will be doing my best to help you."
Finally, a sympathetic voice.
"Oh my gosh, I was relieved!" Ridgway said.
The agent typed the progress in her case. Then, "Great news!" Her account was back.
"I was just relieved... I got my memories back," Ridgway said. "We would have gladly paid the fifteen bucks right away just to fix it."
Yet the couple say Meta should not be charging money to fix problems -- and some critics agree.
"I think it's absolutely unconscionable. Customer service is the price of doing business," said Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Center
She says Meta has created platforms that can put billions of users at risk for hacks.
"Anytime an industry created a problem and then monetizes the solution, we take umbrage with that," Velasquez said.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to such criticism in a blog post, saying: "We already provide protections and some support for everyone. But verifying government IDs and providing direct access to customer support for millions or billions of people costs a significant amount of money. Subscription fees will cover this and will also pace how many people sign up so we'll be able to ensure quality as we scale."
Still, for the Ridgways, it was an expedient $15 resolution.
Ridgway says she intends to cancel her subscription for that protection - and yet, she is already reluctant to give it up.
To protect your account, make sure you enable two factor authentication, and if you've had a problem with an account takeover, contact 7 On Your Side.
Take a look at more stories and videos by 7 On Your Side.
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