Don’t click the link: Social media message led to phone hack, $700 stolen, woman says

An Orlando woman says she lost hundreds of dollars when she clicked a link she got on Facebook Messenger, and her friend did too, she says.

When WKMG “Hit the Road” in the 32825 ZIP code, we met Dawn Church.

Church said she didn’t understand exactly how it happened, so News 6 went to the U.S. Secret Service for help.

So many people use different social media platforms so this is something we should all be on the lookout for.

“Oh, I was afraid. I was very afraid,” Church told News 6

When Church got a link saying “look who died” that appeared to be coming from her son on Facebook Messenger, she initially hesitated.

“I thought, well, this looks a little funny,” she said.

But she clicked it anyway.

“My phone kind of like, blew up,” Church said. “You know, it was doing funny things and going between applications.”

She knew something was wrong, so she turned the phone off.

When she turned it back on she said she got a phone call from a friend.

“He said, ‘hey, I just got a message from you that said, you sent me $700 it was a mistake. Could you send me the money right back?” Church said.

There was one problem. Church had not sent a message.

When she checked her bank account.

$700 was gone, she believes by way of her debit card which was attached to the wallet on her phone.

When her friend tried to send the money back, he lost, too, according to Church.

“Money got deleted from my account, but the money that he sent to me never came into my account,” she said.

So Church was out of $700 and her friend was too she said.

“Exactly. That’s what’s so scary about this,” Church said.

Caroline O’Brien-Buster is the special agent in charge with the U.S. Secret Service Orlando Field Office.

O’Brien-Buster says phones are hijacked more often than you can imagine.

“Even if it’s coming from someone you know, you need to be very, very cautious with the link you’re clicking on,” she said.

Church handed over her phone to Fred Sanks, a network intrusion analyst with the Secret Service, who analyzed it to make sure the bad guys had not left malware on it.

“They’ve usually taken hours and hours to build a piece of malicious code that once it’s on your phone, it’s programmed to do things automatically,” Sanks said. “I’m going to look for these files, these accounts these apps.”

If you accidentally click a link, you’re not familiar with, the first thing to do is contact your bank, Sanks said.

Then change your passwords.

Church contacted her bank who told her the account had been compromised and advised her to close it, she said.

“People can get into your phone and take your money, take your information and do nefarious things with it,” Church said. “For a single mom, that’s just a lot of money.”

Church says her bank refunded the money back temporarily, but later took the money back because they considered it a scam.

The Secret Service says if it happens to you, another option is to wipe your phone by resetting it to the factory settings, but make sure you have everything you need backed up somewhere — otherwise, you will lose it.

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