Cybercriminals Demand Alberta Woman to Pay Ransom for Stolen Social Media Accounts | The Canadian News

A growing crime in Canada has hit a Calgary woman hard.

Connie Hamilton is just one of the latest victims of a cyber attack, one that involves a ransom demand.

“I begged (the hacker),” he told Global News. “I said, ‘This account has no value to you. I have no money ‘”.

It began on October 26 when Hamilton received an email alert informing him that one of his social media accounts had been compromised.

He took immediate action and changed his passwords, but soon discovered that the hacker, whom he claimed to have traced to Nigeria, was also busy.

“I changed the passwords and at the same time, he is hacking me from Nigeria on his device,” he told Global News. “And he beats me, he beats me clean. Change my email, my email verification, change my phone number.

“The hacker is faster, younger and smarter than me,” he said, “and he managed to take over my account.”

In that account there were photos and condolences for the death of his mother and sister.

“My mother and sister died in 2018,” he said. “I would like to recover those photos and those memories.”

Hamilton said he tried to appeal to the hacker’s humanity, but it didn’t work.

In the messages he showed to Global News, he asked the hacker: “You hacked my profile. It contains my memories of my dead mother and sister. Please return it to me. “

The hacker replied, “It will cost you $ 100 to send you the username and password.”

“Yah, no! You can’t be trusted one bit. Crush souls just for fun? Hamilton replied.

Hamilton said the person on the other end continued to ask for money, not only for his personal accounts but also for his business account. Leona Interiors.

She already had additional security on those accounts, but added that they were linked to her Facebook account.

“My mistake. I should have made sure I had multiple profiles, “admitted Hamilton. “But we think we are protected on Facebook.”

She finally managed to protect her business accounts and put warnings on her website and on social media pages to alert others that she had been hacked.

But he refused to consider the idea of ​​sending money, which the hacker asked for in the form of gift cards.

“Is a 12-year-old hitting me? Because who’s asking for $ 100? But maybe it is a process. If I give the hundred dollars, it might be endless, right?

University of Calgary Professor and Cybersecurity Expert Tom Keenan Agreed upon once you give in, you could be setting yourself up for more lawsuits.

“We’re not saying never pay, but of course you shouldn’t pay because it just encourages them,” he said.

“If you pay, will you get your things back? They may just ask for more money. “

Keenan added that it is important to remember that social media platforms can be hacked.

“One thing I always tell businesses is that it’s okay to use Facebook to promote your business, but for the love of God, don’t trust it.

Don’t critically trust something like Facebook. Don’t even trust your own computer. Have a backup somewhere, so if your computer is attacked and the ransomware guy says, ‘I want a million dollars,’ you say, ‘No!’ ”.

Hamilton reached out to Facebook several times for help restoring and protecting his profiles.

“No human contact. There has been zero human contact, “he added,” which is surprising. “

Global News reached out to the social media giant. We have been working together with them and with Hamilton to find their accounts and restore them.