Account temporarily disabled after being hacked for phishing scam

Hello,

Earlier this week my account was hacked and used for a phishing scam, and a day later facebook disabled my account. When I tried to log in, I got this message:

"Account Disabled
Your account has been disabled. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here."

I visited the FAQ page and followed the instructions. I soon received this email:

"Hi,

Your account has been temporarily suspended for security purposes. Our systems indicate that your Facebook account has been compromised by cybercriminals attempting to impersonate you. These criminals often will try to trick your friends into sending them money by claiming that you are stuck in a far away location and need assistance. It is likely that your email account was compromised as well. Obtaining access to a victim's email is one of the primary ways these cybercriminals have been operating. Please take the following steps to regain control of your account:

1. Password Reset: Select new and unique passwords for all of your email addresses. Do not use the same password for different online accounts as this allows hackers to easily gain access to your other accounts, such as Facebook, once one account has been compromised.
2. Email Preferences: Check the Preferences/Settings of your email account to make sure the scammer did not add any unauthorized forwarding rules to your email. This is becoming a common practice for scammers to use, so it is important that you complete this extra step. If you need further assistance with this, please contact your email provider.

Once you have secured your email account, respond to this email with the following:
- The steps you have taken to secure your email account (do not include password information)
- A detailed description of your current profile picture
- A short list of the most recent activity on your account
- Any contact information (location to send money, email address) provided to your friends by the scammer, if available

Be sure to closely follow these instructions and respond to this email. This security step must be completed before Facebook can begin the account verification process.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team"

I replied to this email with the information they requested, and have not received any response. I already changed all my passwords and checked the emails associated with the facebook account for unauthorized access and forwarding.
In your experience dealing with these types of issues, do you know approximately how long facebook takes to respond to these messages and reactivate an account?

Thank you for your help,
Erica

Major question has to be...

What if any is the Protection on the one -privately- owned- and -only- used-by- you -computer you use to access Facebook ?

Can you still send and receive emails using the Email address you have associated with Facebook ?

Hi Ruby,

Thanks for your quick response, I appreciate it.

My computer is only used by me and the protection is pretty good.
Yes, I can still send and receive emails using the email address I have associated with facebook.

Erica

erica127 wrote:Hi Ruby,

Thanks for your quick response, I appreciate it.

My computer is only used by me and the protection is pretty good.
Yes, I can still send and receive emails using the email address I have associated with facebook.

Erica

Please tell me what exactly is the protection on the computer.....

Webroot Spysweeper and AVG, mainly. But how is that relevant?

erica127 wrote:Webroot Spysweeper and AVG, mainly. But how is that relevant?

What do you mean by 'mainly'? What else?

Your issue suggests that the computer may be infected...hense the important questions and the answers needed from you

Do you have the Antivirus Protection part of Webroot Spysweeper installed ?

I do have it installed. I've already run a full scan on my computer and it came back clean.

erica127 wrote:Webroot Spysweeper and AVG, mainly. But how is that relevant?

If , as you say ,you have the Antivirus part of Webroot Spysweper installed that this means you have two antivirus programs on board which, in the Computing World is a big' no no'

You really need to uninstall either AVG or Webroot,

then run a full computer scan with whichever program you have decided to keep after fully updating it.

Of interest, are you computer savy and if so do you know how to find and use System Restore?

What other protection do you have on there please ?

My computer was set up by a computer consultant I've known for decades, and he definitely knows what he's doing. I know how to use a system restore but I think that's a bit extreme at this point.

I do appreciate your advice in this matter, however the reason I posted was to try to get a sense of how long it takes Facebook to reactivate an account. I assumed that you may have been able to answer that question based on your experience assisting people through this forum.

I am sorry but I think you need to discuss with the Computer person why ( from what you say) he has apparently installed Webroot Spysweeper ( with the Antivirus portion) plus AVG antivirus

Would you please ask him ?


Please run two scans

Disclaimer; Run at your own risk

Please download [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and save it to your desktop.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

MBAM may "make changes to your registry" as part of its disinfection routine. If using other security programs that detect registry changes , they may interfere or alert you.

• Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
  
• Double-click on mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
  
  
• When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
  
• When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
  
  
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
    
  • Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  
  
• Then click Finish.

MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan.

• If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue.
  

On the Scanner tab:

• Make sure the "Perform Quick Scan" option is selected.
  
• Then click on the Scan button.
  
• If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
  
• The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
  
• When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
  
• Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.

Back at the main Scanner screen:

• Click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
  
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
  
• When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad.
  
• The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
  
• Copy and paste the contents of that report in your next reply. Be sure to post the complete log to include the top portion which shows MBAM's database version and your operating system.
  
• Exit MBAM when done.

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be asked to reboot your computer so MBAM can proceed with the disinfection process. If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot normally (not into safe mode) will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware.

Disclaimer ;Run at your own risk

Next run Superantisypware (SAS):

Download and scan with [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Free for Home Users

• Double-click SUPERAntiSpyware.exe and use the default settings for installation.
  
• An icon will be created on your desktop. Double-click that icon to launch the program.
  
• If asked to update the program definitions, click "Yes". If not, update the definitions before scanning by selecting "Check for Updates".
  
  
• In the Main Menu, click the Preferences... button.
  
• Click the Scanning Control tab.
  
• Under Scanner Options make sure the following are checked (leave all others unchecked):
  • Close browsers before scanning.
    
  • Scan for tracking cookies.
    
  • Terminate memory threats before quarantining.
• Click the "Close" button to leave the control center screen.
  
• Back on the main screen, under "Scan for Harmful Software" click Scan your computer.
  
• On the left, make sure you check C:\Fixed Drive.
  
• On the right, under "Complete Scan", choose Perform Complete Scan.
  
• Click "Next" to start the scan. Please be patient while it scans your computer.
  
• After the scan is complete, a Scan Summary box will appear with potentially harmful items that were detected. Click "OK".
  
• Make sure everything has a checkmark next to it and click "Next".
  
• A notification will appear that "Quarantine and Removal is Complete". Click "OK" and then click the "Finish" button to return to the main menu.
  
• If asked if you want to reboot, click "Yes".
  
• To retrieve the removal information after reboot, launch SUPERAntispyware again.
  • Click Preferences, then click the Statistics/Logs tab.
    
  • Under Scanner Logs, double-click SUPERAntiSpyware Scan Log.
    
  • If there are several logs, click the current dated log and press View log. A text file will open in your default text editor.
    
  • Please copy and paste the Scan Log results in your next reply.
• Click Close to exit the program.

.




The 'importance' is that I think you are infected as if the account has been phished, that suggests strongly you are using an infected computer
What is Phishing


[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Phishing happens when you enter your login credentials on a fake Facebook login page or download malicious software to your computer. This may result in messages or links being automatically sent to a large number of your friends. These messages or links are often advertisements encouraging your friends to check out videos or products.

Run anti-virus software: If your computer has been infected with a virus or with malware, you will need to run anti-virus software to remove these harmful programs and keep your information secure.

Moderator double post




If you do not believe me then If you put a search into Google and label it 'Why not to install more than One Antivirus Program '
you may find just for starters.....




Information note

Why Is Running Two Antivirus Programs At The Same Time A Problem?
We as humans naturally think that the more of something that you throw at a problem, the better off it is going to be.

That is not always the case.

There are certain times when doing too much can be just as big of a problem as doing too little.

Installing more than one antivirus on the system is one of those cases.

Some people think that since the antivirus software that they use is not able to pick up everything then they should install a second one, or others do not know any better and they get an alert telling them that they need this software to protect them and they install it; they do not realize that they already have a antivirus solution already installed.

Antivirus software is installed differently to other software on the system.

It must be installed with administrator privileges because it must be able to get to certain sensitive places on your system.

If it is not allowed to do this then it will not be able to go after the bad guys effectively.

So when you have two antiviruses installed they are going to do one of two things – they are either going to block each other because they will use or scan the same process at the same time or they will try to eliminate the other antivirus software on your system since the antivirus software has some of the same signatures of the viruses that you are trying to fight.

It needs these signatures to be able to recognize the bad software on the computer.

When you are installing a piece of antivirus software on your compute, make sure that it is the only one.

If not then your system might become inoperable and, ultimately, infected.

having more than one antivirus program running on your computer is bad news. Antivirus programs consume memory and processing power, as they scan the stream of data, emails, web pages and downloads that enter your computer. So it makes sense that having more than one antivirus scanner will slow down your computer.

But there's another potential problem... Sometimes antivirus programs can fight with each other, since they both want to be the final arbiter is good and evil on your computer. One might even think the other *is* a virus, and attempt to quarantine it. You may see slowdowns, lockups or experience random restarts.

That said; do also enquire if both of your Antivirus programs are on what is called' Real Time ' protection please ;thanks

It's not that I don't believe you, it's more that you're answering a question I didn't ask and not answering the question I came here about.

erica127 wrote:It's not that I don't believe you, it's more that you're answering a question I didn't ask and not answering the question I came here about.

You state

Earlier this week my account was hacked and used for a phishing scam,

This strongly suggests that your computer is infected;

What URL do you use for Facebook please?