While Facebook seems to take security relatively seriously, it’s still easy to lose access to your account if a hacker has targeted it. If someone can figure out your password or gains access to your account through social engineering, it can be devastating – both for you and your connections on Facebook. Show
It is hard to find the best resource for regaining access to a hacked Facebook account, so we have compiled most of the information we know to help you recover it independently. Check this tutorial if you think that your Facebook has been hacked, but you are not certain. How To Tell Your Facebook Has Been Hacked Table of Contents
What should you do if someone hacks your Facebook account? Below are the steps you can take to recover your hacked Facebook account. 1. Act ImmediatelyIf you receive an email like this and haven’t tried to reset your password, you should immediately save your account. | Source: W.S.WorrallIf you receive an email from Facebook about suspicious behavior, you need to take action straight away. The longer that a person has access to your account, the more likely it is that they’ll be able to change key information, making it harder for you to win back control. Go through all of your Facebook security emails and follow the instructions immediately. Click on “Change Password” and “Secure your account” and any other links that might help you regain access to your hacked Facebook account. 2. Change your Facebook passwordIf you can still access your account, then the first step should be to change your password. Watch our video tutorial or read our instructions below:
How to Change your Facebook password Log into your Facebook account, click the dropdown arrow at the top of the screen, then select ‘Settings.’ Image 1 of Facebook password tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallNow click ‘Settings.’ Image 2 of Facebook password tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallIn your account settings, click ‘Security and login’ on the left side of the screen. Image 3 of Facebook password tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallImage 4 of Facebook password tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallPlease enter your current password and your new password twice to confirm it. We recommend using a password generator and password manager for security. We also advise you to enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) that enhances your account security by adding a two-step verification system. This makes your account almost unhackable. Be sure to add your phone number and use the SMS verification system, not an app verification system. If you lose your phone and your verification app, you might not be able to log back into your Facebook profile. 3. Not able to log in to your hacked Facebook account?If the hacker has changed your password and the email associated with your Facebook account, there are still ways to recover your Facebook. It’s even possible to recover a Facebook profile if the hacker has added a Two-Factor Authenticator. The best solution to recover any Facebook account is to read all the different security email notifications received from Facebook and follow their instructions. Click on the links in emails received from the sender “Facebook” or “facebookmail.com.” If none of the links like “Secure your account” or “Change your password” help, try to follow our Facebook recovery tutorial below. 4. Password RecoveryIf your password is no longer working and you suspect someone has changed it, then your next step is to use Facebook’s account recovery options. You can view our video instructions of it below: How To Change Password on Your Hacked Facebook Account Go to the Facebook login page and click ‘Forgotten password?’ Image 1 of account recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallEnter an email address or phone number associated with your account and click ‘Search.’ Image 2 of Account recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallChoose to log in via your email, Google account, or telephone number, then click ‘Continue.’ Image 3 of account recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallEnter the code you received via text or email and click ‘Continue.’ Image 4 of account recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallEnter your new password and click ‘Continue’ to confirm. Image 5 of account Recovery Tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.Worrall5. Family and Friends RecoveryIf you can’t recover the account yourself, a friend or family member can help you recover the account instead. How to Recover Your Hacked Facebook Profile with the Family and Friends Option Have your friend log in and go to the profile you need to recover. Click the three dots under the profile name, and select ‘Find support or report profile.’ Image 1 of friend recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallOn the report window, select ‘I can’t access my account,’ then click ‘Next.’ Image 2 of friend recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallClick ‘Recover this account.’ Image 3 of friend recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallClick ‘No longer have access to these?’ at the bottom of the window. Image 4 of friend recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallEnter an email address or phone number you currently have access to, then click ‘Continue’ to get in contact with someone from Facebook Support. Image 5 of friend recovery tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallYou may be asked to upload a valid ID like your passport or your driver’s license. Sometimes it asks you to upload it by taking a picture with your webcam. In that case, ensure that the room you are in has enough light to make the picture clear. All details must be visible. No corners of your passport or driver’s license can be cut. Once uploaded, it can take anywhere from one to two weeks to get a response from Facebook. 6. Report Your Hacked Account to FacebookIf none of the other methods are working, you should report the hacked account directly to Facebook. Report Your Hacked Account to Facebook Go to the hacked account report page, and click ‘My Account Is Compromised.’ Image 1 of report tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallEnter your email address or phone number, then click ‘Search.’ Image 2 of report tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallEnter your most recent password and click ‘continue’ to report your account. Facebook may provide you further instructions to aid in account recovery. Image 3 of report tutorial. | Source: Hacked/W.S.WorrallFacebook may request that you upload a photograph of your ID to prove your identity, as explained in section two of this article. 7. Bypassing 2FA – Two-Factor AuthenticationBypassing Facebook's 2FA - Two-Factor Authentication If the hacker has added a Two-Factor Authentication, it is still possible to bypass it. When you try to log in and are prompted with the screen below, please click on “Need another way to authenticate.” Then the following pop up should appear: You can then click on “Submit a request to Facebook.” It will then ask you to fill in your account’s name, your mobile carrier’s name, your full name, and then it will ask you to upload a governmental approved ID. Once you have submitted this form, you should receive a response within 48 hours to one week. However, due to the pandemic, Facebook is using more time to verify your uploaded ID. Some of our clients have received Facebook emails telling them that they could not review their IDs due to being understaffed. If this happens to you, you should keep uploading your ID weekly until they verify your ID. 8. Using Your Trusted Contacts to Change Your Facebook Login EmailIf you have added three to five trusted contacts on Facebook, you might get an option to ask your trusted contacts for a unique code to regain access to your hacked Facebook account. Ensure that you use a new email that has not been used on Facebook before.After you fill in a new email in the form you see above, Facebook can redirect you to the following recovery option: Here you can get codes from your trusted contacts to regain access to your hacked Facebook account.Keep this form open while you send the recovery link facebook.com/recover to your trusted contacts. Your friends will see a unique code that they must send to you. Once you have received the recovery codes from your Facebook friends, add them here and click continue. Some of our clients have spent too much time getting the recovery codes from their friends, making the form invalid. If that happens to you, you need to repeat the process. Here is the message you’ll receive after using Facebook’s trusted contacts recovery option.After submitting the codes to Facebook, you will see the message in the image above. You should receive a link from Facebook to your new email address to recover your hacked Facebook account. We have seen clients completing all of these steps without receiving any link from Facebook; if that happens to you, get in touch with us. 9. Facebook Recovery LinksHere are the best Facebook recovery links to try to gain access to your hacked Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/recover/initiate https://www.facebook.com/login/identify https://www.facebook.com/hacked If you’ve recovered your Facebook account, you should follow our account security guide to keep it safe. 10. Not able to find your hacked Facebook profile?If you are not able to locate your Facebook account since the hacker has changed your email and phone number, you can try these instructions: Go to https://www.facebook.com/login/identify or https://www.facebook.com/hacked so you can see the following screen on a computer: Find your account option on Facebook. Image: Jonas Borchgrevink.Now, try to find your hacked Facebook account by searching for the following:
If neither of these options works, then you must do the following:
If there is no email or phone number listed under your hacked Facebook account’s about me section, ask your friend to go to your profile once more on a computer and copy your Facebook URL. Here is an example of what a Facebook profile URL is: Image by Jonas Borchgrevink, founder of Hacked.comThen try to add this full URL in the search bar for finding your account. If that doesn’t work, try to copy the last section of your profile URL like “jonasborchgrevink” from the image above and search for that. 11. Still Unable to recover your Facebook account?If you cannot recover your Facebook account by following the instructions in this article, you may want to consider getting help from us. You’re probably experiencing Facebook’s cycle of death as described below: You click on Secure My Account.You only see an option to send a code to the hacker’s email, and then you click on “No longer have access to these.”And the only message you receive is the following: “Account Access Not Possible.”The only options around this are included in our recovery session that you can order for $329 with a guaranteed refund. Once ordered, you’ll receive a link to schedule a call with us on Zoom. We will conduct a full security audit of your online accounts to ensure that you can’t be hacked again, and then we will do everything we can to recover your hacked account. You’ll be able to re-schedule new calls with us free of charge until your issue has been resolved. You’ll continue to receive free support and help from our team for one year. After that, your Digital Protection Plan will be renewed at $99 yearly. The Digital Protection Plan can be canceled at any time. Once you’ve recovered your Facebook account, you should follow our account security guide to keep it safe. If you wonder why your Facebook account was hacked, you can learn more from this article. 12. If Everything Fails, Delete Your Hacked Facebook AccountIf everything has failed and you are tired of a hacker controlling your Facebook account, you can consider having it deleted. There are two ways of doing that, which can be explained in our recovery session. If you have been able to recover your hacked Facebook and want to delete it, please follow the following instructions in this article. For more ways of removing profiles, images, and videos from Facebook, read this tutorial. What To Do if Your Facebook Account Is Compromised. Received Facebook Password Change? Someone May Have Accessed Your Account. Facebook image by pixinoo from Shutterstock.com. This tutorial was created by William Worrall and Jonas Borchgrevink for Hacked.com. Can I get my Facebook page back after being hacked?The best thing you can do is contact a Page admin or someone with Facebook access with full control to the Page and ask them to add you back. There are different kinds of Page roles and access, and only Page admins or people with Facebook access to a Page with full control can add or remove people.
What happens after Facebook account is hacked?If your account has been compromised, it likely has been used to contact people in your friends list. You'll need to tell them not to trust any links or install any apps that you had sent them — via wall postings, Facebook messages or Facebook email — while the intruder had control of your account.
How long does it take for Facebook to get back to you about a hacked account?Based on our experience, the average recovery process takes around 1-2 weeks, but it'll be worth it. Hacked accounts are far more likely to get hacked again.
Who do I contact after being hacked?The FTC. If you confirm you've been a victim of identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission can help with a recovery plan and important documentation. Trusted friends and family. Let them know you suspect suspicious activity so they can keep an eye out for phishing messages or unusual communications.
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