BOZEMAN — In an era where nearly everyone maintains a Facebook profile, the platform is integral to our personal and professional lives. But for Missy Severson, owner of the Antique Barn, a beloved local shop off Highway 191, a recent experience has turned this social media necessity into a nightmare.
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“I’ve heard of it happening to other people, but until it happens to you? Wow. It’s not good,” Severson lamented after discovering her Facebook account had been compromised last month.
For more than two decades, Severson has poured her heart and soul into running the Antique Barn, utilizing her Facebook page to update customers and share news about her beloved small business. But everything changed last month.
"The first thing that happened is I started getting notifications on my Facebook saying someone was trying to log into my account from a different location," she said.
Missy immediately logged into her personal account, trying to change her password. But it was too late.
"Pretty soon, they started posting on my page that I was into Bitcoin, and I had made big money and had bought a new house," Missy said.
Despite her customers' attempts to warn her by commenting on the posts, the intruders blocked those comments and even barred her family from accessing her page. The breach escalated quickly, with the hackers soon taking control of the Antique Barn’s Facebook page, which boasted nearly 10,000 followers.
“It’s just devastating to have all of that taken away all of a sudden,” Severson expressed, highlighting the sudden impact on her ability to connect with customers and promote her business.
Missy had to cancel her credit cards, and her social media accounts remain unrecovered weeks later. She’s not alone in this struggle; many people fall victim to similar hacking incidents, leaving businesses vulnerable and without recourse.
According to Lindsay Shephard, a detective with the Bozeman Police Department who specializes in property crimes, social media hacking is alarmingly common.
“Probably daily, someone is getting hacked,” she said.
Shephard emphasized that hackers are not necessarily interested in individual users themselves.
"Most often when we're talking about social media? They actually aren't necessarily interested in you, they're interested in all your contacts and all your friends," she said.
Hackers then use those online connections to advance schemes such as the Bitcoin scam posts that appeared on Missy's page.
Shephard recommends some proactive strategies for anyone concerned about getting hacked: "Change your passwords. Change them often. Don't use your same passwords across platforms. Then, if you do have one compromised, youre not having five compromised. It's just the one to deal with."
As for Missy Severson, the situation has taken a toll on her business. With an open house event at the Antique Barn scheduled for this Saturday, she finds herself unable to effectively promote the gathering.
"It's sad how dependent we are on it. You use it for everything," she said, "and now it's such a violation that I feel like I want off all of it. It's scary."
Missy says she's accepted the fact that her accounts are gone and will be steering clear of Facebook for the foreseeable future.
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