Thanks for this, and it is extremely timely. I had a call from my employer yesterday asking for the FB password, and was trying to log onto a Facebook call with someone who wanted to do an interview. I read this and called him this morning - they had offered $2000 for the interview and done enough research to know who he would be interested in being interviewed by.
The zoom caller asked him to have an administrator at today's call, so clearly they hit our two-factor authentication and wanted past it as well.
Talk about reading your story in the nick of time! Thanks, Dina!
I recently published a photo book that has sold pretty well. A few months later I got an email supposedly from a major well known Movie/TV production company asking me to sell them the rights for a streaming series. It included a Zoom schedule of open times to meet with the producer. Google searched the company (many big TV and movie projects) and his name all came back as a real person/company.
I kept on scheduling times and nobody ever showed up at the meeting. Email address was just a little different that the listed company domain. No emails were ever returned.
Finally gave up and found that the entire thing was bogus. They never asked me for any money, so I have no clue what their end-game was, other than piss folks off and raise their expectations.
However, based on the concept I got from the scammer, I am now negotiating with a few real folks to turn the book into a streaming series.
It’s hard to admit you almost got scammed. Thank you for writing about it. I’m sure many people who don’t understand “permissions” can lose control of their sites. And then? Maybe have to pay to get it back? Love your blog posts!
People suck. Thanks for the heads up Dina and glad you were able to pump the brakes before getting fully scammed. I have recently heard about another more insidious Meta account takeover scam that happened to someone I know a couple weeks ago.
The scammer is somehow able to link their Instagram account to a target's personal Meta page, typically where the person has a business page and a FB ad spend. The scammer does something shady to get their Instagram account suspended, which also now suspends the linked Facebook account of the target.
The target at this point has not done anything. They get an alert from Meta saying their Facebook account was suspended and the only way to get it unsuspended is to login to the scammer's linked Instagram account to request a review of the suspension.
Obviously the target does not have access to that and has no simple way to get through to a human at Meta support to appeal the suspension. Meanwhile, if the target owns a business page which also gets suspended, the attacker is somehow able to still run up charges with the credit card linked to their ad spend.
Meta is complicit on two fronts. That they allow a random person to link to an account they don't own, and that their support processes are so convulted it is nearly impossible for most people to get their account back.
Ever.
Decade+ of memories, family , photos etc all locked up and inaccessible.
Do you have two-factor authentication set up? You should (use the app in your phone to change passwords and get the two-factor code; FB doesn't use any of the other authenticator apps.) Do you have a credit card attached to your FB/Meta account? Don't. It's a tool, but you have to stay on top of the sneaky things they try to set as default, etc.
Yikes. It can happen to anyone, it seems (failing to note a red flag soon enough). So happy to read you grew wise to the scam early on and didn’t fall prey to it. Thanks for shining some sunlight on your experience to remind the rest of us how easy it can be to be a target of nefarious activity.
OMG, Dina, I got the same scam email! I was just writing a post about it for my own Substack when I thought to Google search my letter- and I found you here! I'm so glad both of us avoided having our social media following hijacked. Here's the exact email I got. (Red flag #1, it was addressed to one of my social media pages "Your Inner Pilot Light," not to me- Lissa Rankin. Red flag #2, the email is coming from a gmail account. Usually podcasts come from LeeAnn@WifeOfTheParty.com, or something like that.)
Subject: Invitation To Join Our Podcast As a Guest.
Dear Your Inner Pilot Light
I'm inviting you as a guest on the "Wife of the Party with LeeAnn Kreischer." We have 4 or 5 artists from different parts of the world joining us for a live Facebook event, expecting an audience of nearly 2 million. We are offering $2,000 for each one-hour episode.
The podcast will cover entertainment, life struggles, and more. Your participation would be a great fit for our audience.
Please let me know if you are interested in joining.
LeeAnn Kreischer
My spidey senses were smelling scammers, since I've never once been paid to be a podcast guest. But just in case it was a gift from the heavens, I sent the invite to my publicist at Sounds True, who gave it the thumbs up. So I wrote to "LeeAnn":
Hi LeeAnn's team!
Thank you for the invitation to be a guest on the live Facebook event, and I appreciate the offer of the $2000 honorarium. I'm happy to try to help out.
I'm just checking to see who's invited. The email was addressed to "Your Inner Pilot Light," which is based on a book I wrote The Daily Flame, as well as a daily email and Facebook page. Is me (Lissa Rankin, MD) invited? Or am I channeling Your Inner Pilot Light? Just making sure I understand what's expected of me.
I'm cc'ing my team here so they can help out as well.
Warmly
Lissa (+ Your Inner Pilot Light)
The response clinched my spidey senses:
Hi there, Thanks for getting in touch with us
This is LeeAnn's manager Carlos, You are talking to her management
Anyone can join from your side and It is an open conversation. There is no script involved, just be yourself and have fun, we want to keep that as natural as possible, as raw as possible.
We don't have any contract and it's also not needed because we are paying you fully upfront payment for the event. As far as payment is concerned you get paid 48 hours before the event date. So by the time you are doing the event, you are already fully paid with no issues.
There are in total 10 episodes but we are inviting you for 1 episode, The podcast is for max 1 hour. We would love to have you join our event
The event will be held from 10th February till 20th February every day 8 pm till 10 pm Est you can let us know when you are available on these days we can set you up for any day you want.
And then I found you. So now you're all forewarned! Be careful everyone! And thank you Dina for the heads up. I'm going to post my own warning so there will be three of us blowing this particular whistle! Glad you made it out unscathed.
Wow they are still going strong. That's why I thought it's important to write about it. I almost got swindled because I couldn't find any information about the scam.
Thanks for this, and it is extremely timely. I had a call from my employer yesterday asking for the FB password, and was trying to log onto a Facebook call with someone who wanted to do an interview. I read this and called him this morning - they had offered $2000 for the interview and done enough research to know who he would be interested in being interviewed by.
The zoom caller asked him to have an administrator at today's call, so clearly they hit our two-factor authentication and wanted past it as well.
Talk about reading your story in the nick of time! Thanks, Dina!
Oh wow, it is really going around.
I recently published a photo book that has sold pretty well. A few months later I got an email supposedly from a major well known Movie/TV production company asking me to sell them the rights for a streaming series. It included a Zoom schedule of open times to meet with the producer. Google searched the company (many big TV and movie projects) and his name all came back as a real person/company.
I kept on scheduling times and nobody ever showed up at the meeting. Email address was just a little different that the listed company domain. No emails were ever returned.
Finally gave up and found that the entire thing was bogus. They never asked me for any money, so I have no clue what their end-game was, other than piss folks off and raise their expectations.
However, based on the concept I got from the scammer, I am now negotiating with a few real folks to turn the book into a streaming series.
It’s hard to admit you almost got scammed. Thank you for writing about it. I’m sure many people who don’t understand “permissions” can lose control of their sites. And then? Maybe have to pay to get it back? Love your blog posts!
People suck. Thanks for the heads up Dina and glad you were able to pump the brakes before getting fully scammed. I have recently heard about another more insidious Meta account takeover scam that happened to someone I know a couple weeks ago.
The scammer is somehow able to link their Instagram account to a target's personal Meta page, typically where the person has a business page and a FB ad spend. The scammer does something shady to get their Instagram account suspended, which also now suspends the linked Facebook account of the target.
The target at this point has not done anything. They get an alert from Meta saying their Facebook account was suspended and the only way to get it unsuspended is to login to the scammer's linked Instagram account to request a review of the suspension.
Obviously the target does not have access to that and has no simple way to get through to a human at Meta support to appeal the suspension. Meanwhile, if the target owns a business page which also gets suspended, the attacker is somehow able to still run up charges with the credit card linked to their ad spend.
Meta is complicit on two fronts. That they allow a random person to link to an account they don't own, and that their support processes are so convulted it is nearly impossible for most people to get their account back.
Ever.
Decade+ of memories, family , photos etc all locked up and inaccessible.
More info on that one here : https://siliconangle.com/2023/05/28/facebook-users-lose-accounts-due-unknown-linked-spam-instagram-accounts/
Note that article was written over a year ago and this issue still continues to affect FB users with little recourse to get it resolved.
It is indeed time to deactivate my Meta page.
Do you have two-factor authentication set up? You should (use the app in your phone to change passwords and get the two-factor code; FB doesn't use any of the other authenticator apps.) Do you have a credit card attached to your FB/Meta account? Don't. It's a tool, but you have to stay on top of the sneaky things they try to set as default, etc.
Yikes. It can happen to anyone, it seems (failing to note a red flag soon enough). So happy to read you grew wise to the scam early on and didn’t fall prey to it. Thanks for shining some sunlight on your experience to remind the rest of us how easy it can be to be a target of nefarious activity.
Jeez. I hate that this stuff exists. Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Dina!
OMG, Dina, I got the same scam email! I was just writing a post about it for my own Substack when I thought to Google search my letter- and I found you here! I'm so glad both of us avoided having our social media following hijacked. Here's the exact email I got. (Red flag #1, it was addressed to one of my social media pages "Your Inner Pilot Light," not to me- Lissa Rankin. Red flag #2, the email is coming from a gmail account. Usually podcasts come from LeeAnn@WifeOfTheParty.com, or something like that.)
From: LeeAnn Kreischer <leeannbroadcastchannel@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Subject: Invitation To Join Our Podcast As a Guest.
Dear Your Inner Pilot Light
I'm inviting you as a guest on the "Wife of the Party with LeeAnn Kreischer." We have 4 or 5 artists from different parts of the world joining us for a live Facebook event, expecting an audience of nearly 2 million. We are offering $2,000 for each one-hour episode.
The podcast will cover entertainment, life struggles, and more. Your participation would be a great fit for our audience.
Please let me know if you are interested in joining.
LeeAnn Kreischer
My spidey senses were smelling scammers, since I've never once been paid to be a podcast guest. But just in case it was a gift from the heavens, I sent the invite to my publicist at Sounds True, who gave it the thumbs up. So I wrote to "LeeAnn":
Hi LeeAnn's team!
Thank you for the invitation to be a guest on the live Facebook event, and I appreciate the offer of the $2000 honorarium. I'm happy to try to help out.
I'm just checking to see who's invited. The email was addressed to "Your Inner Pilot Light," which is based on a book I wrote The Daily Flame, as well as a daily email and Facebook page. Is me (Lissa Rankin, MD) invited? Or am I channeling Your Inner Pilot Light? Just making sure I understand what's expected of me.
I'm cc'ing my team here so they can help out as well.
Warmly
Lissa (+ Your Inner Pilot Light)
The response clinched my spidey senses:
Hi there, Thanks for getting in touch with us
This is LeeAnn's manager Carlos, You are talking to her management
Anyone can join from your side and It is an open conversation. There is no script involved, just be yourself and have fun, we want to keep that as natural as possible, as raw as possible.
We don't have any contract and it's also not needed because we are paying you fully upfront payment for the event. As far as payment is concerned you get paid 48 hours before the event date. So by the time you are doing the event, you are already fully paid with no issues.
There are in total 10 episodes but we are inviting you for 1 episode, The podcast is for max 1 hour. We would love to have you join our event
The event will be held from 10th February till 20th February every day 8 pm till 10 pm Est you can let us know when you are available on these days we can set you up for any day you want.
Lissa here. So...I knew it was a scam at this point- all the typos and grammatical errors and such. But I sent it to my business manager, who found this: https://arianesherine.substack.com/p/how-i-almost-got-scammed-on-facebook
And then I found you. So now you're all forewarned! Be careful everyone! And thank you Dina for the heads up. I'm going to post my own warning so there will be three of us blowing this particular whistle! Glad you made it out unscathed.
Wow they are still going strong. That's why I thought it's important to write about it. I almost got swindled because I couldn't find any information about the scam.
It really can happen to anyone, glad you caught it!
Thanks for sharing! I am glad you didn’t fall for it in the end. So crazy what kind of tricks they have up their sleeves.
Thank you for sharing this story. It's getting scary out there on the Internet.
Dina,
Thanks for sharing and exposing this scam...
Thank you for sharing this, Dina. Totally enjoy your posts!
😵💫