Are you locked out of your Facebook account? You're not alone

ByKristin Thorne WABC logo

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Are you locked out of your Facebook account? You're not alone

Are you having trouble logging into Facebook because it's asking you for a 6-digit code that you can't get? You aren't the only one.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Are you having trouble logging into Facebook because it's asking you for a 6-digit code that you can't get? You aren't the only one.

Eyewitness News spoke with a business owner from Holtsville who has been locked out of her business Facebook account for the last two weeks.

"People could be messaging me, and it just looks like I'm not getting back to them," said Cindy O'Campo, with CC Slumber Party.

O'Campo said her personal Facebook account was hacked July 22. Her personal account is tied to her business page, which has more than 3,500 followers.

"My business page is still up and running, but because my personal account was hacked I can't make any changes on the business page," she explained to Eyewitness News reporter Kristin Thorne.

It appears the hackers set up two-factor authentication on O'Campo's account, so the 6-digit code O'Campo needs to get back into her personal account is going to the hackers, not to her.

"It's really six digits that are keeping me from running my business," she said.

O'Campo has submitted pictures of her driver's license, passport and marriage certificate through Facebook, as stipulated through Facebook's directions if someone is having problem receiving the code.

"You don't have any other option," she said. "You can't get a live person on the phone."

O'Campo said after she submits the documents, she receives a message confirming her submission, but only minutes later she gets an email saying her documents are not valid.

O'Campo said she even tried to take out an ad with Facebook hoping she may be able to get someone on the phone. She could not get in touch with a live person.

She estimates she's lost 30 party bookings in the last two weeks by not having access to her Facebook business page.

Eyewitness News did a search on Twitter and found many other people who are having the same issue as O'Campo.

One Twitter user wrote, "Facebook help links offer NO HELP! Sending codes to the hackers email aren't going to help me retrieve my account! Do better, Facebook! I'm livid!"

Some people have resorted to buying a $300 virtual reality headset owned by Facebook just to get a Facebook customer service representative on the phone.

"I think this just further signifies the relationship that we as consumers have with the company, in that, we are not an actual customer of Facebook, right, we are the product," said cyber security expert Kunal Anand.

Anand, who is the Chief Technology Officer of cyber security company Imperva, said people can protect all of their online accounts, including their social media accounts, by setting up two-factor authentication before the hackers do.

"So the attacker may get your credentials, they may crack your username and password, but they won't make it past the second check of putting in that special code," he said.

Anand said "bad bots" are taking over the Internet and are most likely causing the issue Facebook users are experiencing.

Anand said 25 percent of all internet traffic is bad bot related and is wreaking havoc on people's accounts all over the world.

"This is a really big issue," he said.

Eyewitness News reached out to Facebook, but did not hear back.

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