You know there’s something fishy when a respected martial arts trainer suddenly posts child exploitation material on his Facebook page and then buys huge Vietnamese ads for fishing rods.
But Jihad Bekai, who runs the G-Force martial arts school in Melbourne, said convincing Facebook owner Meta has been utterly impossible.
Jihad Bekai’s Facebook account was hacked a month ago. Although he initially thought it would be an easy fix, he has encountered multiple dead ends. (Supplied)
This causes an automated response from Facebook, banning the user for violating its “community standards”.
While the user is busy dealing with the consequences and trying to regain access to Facebook, the hackers go after their real target, usually a credit card linked to a business page they run.
Over the course of a month, the hackers made more than 50 charges to Bekai’s credit card for Facebook ads, totaling more than $1000.
Meanwhile, Bekai said he’s been caught in an angry feedback loop with Facebook, whose online customer support forms don’t register the absurdity of his situation.
Bekai’s account was deactivated almost immediately after hackers posted child exploitation material on her Facebook page. (Supplied)
“Facebook cannot be contacted but they are happy to charge the credit card linked to my disabled account,” Bekai told 9news.com.au.
“Since when do I post Vietnamese ads about fishing rods?
“Also, if your artificial intelligence is so great that it can detect child pornography, why can’t it put two and two together and realize that it would be unusual for me to be making 10 years of martial arts videos and suddenly decide ?Child pornography is my thing, so much so that I want to put it online for all to see in a public post.”
From the moment hackers uploaded child exploitation material to Bekai’s Facebook page, his entire social media presence was banished in one fell swoop.
Bekai lost access to his martial arts school’s Facebook page and Instagram account. He also runs a cafe and a Melbourne martial arts tournament. You already have access to these social media accounts.
“It’s 15 years of work, just gone, all taken away,” he said.
“My Facebook page often gets 10,000 interactions, so does my Instagram. I have all these high-quality professional videos of us doing martial arts demonstrations.”
Bekai Martial Arts School only advertises on social media. Your Facebook page is one of the main ways new customers discover your business.
“The G-Force page is still there, but it has no admin, so now it’s floating around as a ghost page,” he said.
The hackers moved quickly to buy Facebook ads using Jihad Bekai’s credit card. (Supplied)
After going around in circles for weeks, Bekai said he finally managed to speak with a Meta online support worker. But the IT support worker’s responses to him, written in poor English, were even more baffling and infuriating, he said.
In one conversation, seen by 9news.com.au, an IT support worker told Bekai that he could not get a refund of the credit card charges because a family member or friend had been found to be using his card of credit to buy ads. .
In another message thread, an IT support worker calls Bekai by the wrong name, before telling her that she won’t be able to recover her account, but to “have a sweet night.”
“This is where it started to go crazy,” Bekai said.
“I was almost on the verge of thinking that Facebook itself had been hacked from the responses.”
“They see the damage in real time”
Bekai’s case is similar to that of Queensland businessman Michael Meyrick, who found himself and his business besieged by hackers in August this year.
Hackers began buying Vietnamese-language Facebook ads for nose trimmers on Meyrick’s account, before posting them on his business page.
9news.com.au has been inundated with similar complaints from small business owners about Facebook hackers.
Australia’s small business ombudsman, Bruce Billson, said the damage caused by social media hackers to small businesses could be devastating.
Bekai said she relies on Facebook to maintain a profile for her business and attract new customers. (Supplied)
“Some people have built their entire business on Facebook or Instagram, and we understand that having someone else access and control their account is devastating to their business and reputation,” Billson said.
“They see the damage to their business in real time without being able to stop it.”
Over the past 12 months, the ombudsman has helped investigate 34 cases of small business owners who had their Facebook or Instagram accounts hacked or disabled.
Billson said his office often worked with Meta to help small business owners regain access to their accounts.
“Our office cannot make findings or compel Meta to provide specific results, but we work collaboratively to help people get back to business as quickly as possible,” Billson said.
The first step people should take is to follow Meta’s processes for hacked accounts, Billson said.
If that didn’t work, they could contact his office for help, he added.
“We’re focused on getting the information that Meta needs to solve the problem, put in front of a real person at Meta,” he said.
“We have a very good relationship with Meta and they are helpful and responsive to the issues we raise with them.”
Users should protect their accounts by following Meta’s advice to turn on multi-factor authentication, choose strong passwords and turn on login alerts, he said.
“We would also encourage people to keep copies of their account details and URLs in a safe place so that if they are hacked, they can provide the information without needing to access the platform.”
But following these steps doesn’t always protect users.
Bekai said the most frustrating thing about being a victim of Facebook hackers is that he apparently did everything he could to safeguard his accounts.
“I’m very computer savvy – I have two-factor authentication and I use very strong random passwords,” he said.
“I never thought there was any way to compromise my accounts.”
Bekai said the hackers appear to have infiltrated their accounts by somehow adding themselves as administrators to their Facebook Commerce account, which links personal and business pages, as well as credit cards together in one single place
Bekai has been running his business Facebook page for 15 years. (Supplied)
“The first notification I got was an email saying someone had been added to my trading account,” he said.
Bekai initially ignored the email thinking it was spam, but then another came through saying a second person had been added to the account.
“What did I do wrong? I had two factor authentication. How did they get in?” he asked.
“Usually if I sign in on a new device myself, I can’t, it pops up with a notification on my phone.
“I didn’t get a notification. Facebook let them in and now they’re punishing me for child pornography. What happens to my reputation now?”
Desperate for a resolution, Bekai said he had resorted to contacting a lawyer to draft a legal notice to Meta on his behalf.
Bekai said it had also made a report to the Australian Cyber Security Center (ACSC) but had yet to receive a response.
“It’s a shame,” he said.
“How can Facebook be allowed to destroy people’s livelihoods in Australia. There’s no consumer protection? They don’t have to follow some guidelines on how they operate.”
After 9news.com.au contacted Meta, a spokesperson said the company was investigating Bekai’s case.
“We work hard to protect our community and protect it from hackers,” said a Meta spokesperson.
“We use a combination of automated systems and people to help review content flagged by our community. We’re committed to continuing to invest in AI to improve accuracy and strengthen our review and appeals systems.”