Image: Nicole Weber / Chilliwack small business owner Nicole Weber says her Instagram business account was recently hacked by foreign nationals earlier this month, resulting in her Instagram page being wiped clean and her social media reach being decimated. She says she's worked six years to build up her social media marketing business, only to see hackers destroy all her hard work.
Small business owner hacked

Small business owner from Chilliwack says she’s lost everything after being hacked

Mar 22, 2023 | 8:33 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack resident Nicole Weber had a thriving social media marketing business and vibrant online presence under the business name of “Get Social with Nicole” on various social media platforms.

Weber, who moved to Chilliwack in the last year, operated her media marketing business through Instagram and built a following of 7,000 organic followers through six years of hard work and creativity, and offering client-focused solutions. Life was going well enough for her in her new community that she initiated an online auction for farmers who had suffered losses in the Fraser Valley floods of November 2021. She raised $1,500 each on two occasions to assist local farmers in purchasing hay to feed their livestock.

But her financial livelihood and years of hard work encountered some unexpected troubles starting Thursday, March 9 when she received an email from Instagram for individuals with verified blue check marks asking her to log in to verify her account. After logging in, the emails began pouring in suspiciously within minutes.

“I have the email from Instagram,” said Weber. “It looked so legitimate. From there, it took me over to a page where I put in my username and email. I did that, and all of a sudden I got spammed within a couple minutes. I got hundreds of emails from subscriptions in my inbox. I instantly changed passwords on Instagram and Gmail.”

But her problems were just starting. In the early morning hours of Sunday morning, March 12, repeated messages from a hacker who goes by the name of Oreilly Lapoint flooded her inbox. The first message indicated Lapoint had gained access to Weber’s Instagram account and threatened to delete all photos from her account and sell it for advertising if she did not answer promptly enough.

Image: Nicole Weber / This was the first message received from a hacker who infiltrated Nicole Weber’s online account.

The messages continued unabated, including one demanding $350 from her, until a final message shared by Weber revealed that the hacker(s) had given up patience and planned to delete all her information and render her account null and void. The hacker made good on the threat to wipe out her account.

Image: Nicole Weber

Weber says she contacted the RCMP to report the hacking, but was told that Mounties couldn’t do much to intervene due to the hackers being out of country. She similarly reported the fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Once she shared her story online this past week of being hacked and losing her website content, Weber says she’s had people from Vancouver and Maple Ridge reach out to her with similar stories. These same individuals told Weber that social media companies would not assist them with restoring their accounts.

Weber says she blocked the sender of the ominous messages on her Gmail account, but continued receiving emails. She says technical support teams at Instagram did not assist her when she needed them to authenticate her account, even going so far as to record video footage of herself to try to get back into her account.

“I blocked the sender on my Gmail account but was still receiving emails from them, so the security at Gmail is compromised, too,” said Weber. “I want to get this out to the world, and especially our community, that this is happening. That small businesses take a step in starting a business, hope for all the success and security to keep ourselves and our clients safe. This has to stop.”

She hopes to start over from scratch and be as determined as she was when she first started her own business at the age of 19 years old.

“No matter what happens in over 10 years as an entrepreneur, I always try to shine through at the end of the day,” Weber said. “I lost my job, my potential clients. It’s devastating; I’ve broken down so many times. It’s my life, it’s how I pay my bills. I have actually started over. I have to start over just to get more prospective clients.”

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