Marley’s Mutts struggles to recover hacked Facebook page, asks community for help
Internet scams are everywhere these days, on every platform, in any way, but now, those scams have hit a Kern County dog rescue organization. Zach Skow, founder of Marley's Mutts in Tehachapi, California, has been hit by a cyber scam, where he lost 15 years of work. The hackers changed the name, password, and administrators of the page, hijacking the lifeline of thousands of dogs over the years. Skow is asking the community to personally tag Meta in Marley’s Mutts posts in hopes that this will bring his original page back. No official assistance has been provided from Facebook, parent company of Facebook, in the 10 days since the page was hacked.
Published : 5 months ago by Cecilia Trevino in Tech
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Internet scams are everywhere these days, on every platform, in any way, but now, those scams have hit a Kern County dog rescue organization.
Zach Skow, founder of Marley’s Mutts in Tehachapi, realized too late he was victim of a scam, and says he lost 15 years of work.
“They initially reached out by asking to do a live post, basically through a celebrity, ‘Would you like to be on this podcast? It’s going to help you reach more people, we’re going to share your message, we’re going to help you reach more folks so that you can save more dogs,'” said Skow. “So, when I heard ‘reach more folks, save more dogs’ it’s like, ‘Oh yea, absolutely, let’s go for it.'”
What seemed like a great opportunity quickly turned into the loss of a Facebook page that took years to grow. Hackers quickly changed the name, password, and administrators of the page — hijacking the lifeline of thousands of dogs over the years.
“Starting over to try and reengage 750,000 followers is virtually impossible,” said Skow. “I mean, this is something that we’ve built up since 2009. Every week that goes by that we can’t access our Facebook page is a week that more dogs will pass away. More dogs that we can’t help, revenue that we can’t raise.”
No help has been available from Meta, parent company of Facebook, in the 10 days since the page was hacked.
“We can’t get anyone on the phone from Meta, we can’t get customer service to respond to emails,” said Skow. “There literally is no customer service option for us to engage with. We’re just at a loss.”
Skow is asking the community to personally tag Meta in Marley’s Mutts posts. He hopes with enough messages, Meta will bring his original page back.
Topics: Security, Security Breach, Social Media