A Brisbane mom explains how cybercriminals stole $24,000 from her loyal followers after hacking her social media accounts.
Anna Van Dijk runs the popular ‘Lunchbox Mini’ online store, where she sells a variety of lunchboxes, water bottles, coffee mugs and cooler bags.
In February, her Instagram account was targeted by cybercriminals who stole thousands of her loyal followers using a fake bitcoin scheme.
In just seven days, scammers defrauded a dozen Australian mothers for $24,000 as Ms. Van Dijk desperately tried to regain control of her account.
Anna Van Dijk (pictured) runs the popular ‘Lunchbox Mini’ online store, where she sells a variety of lunchboxes, water bottles, coffee mugs and cooler bags
The scammers told Ms. Van Dijk’s followers that if they invested $1,000, they could make $7,000 in just two hours (photo, a message the scammers sent to a victim)
He revealed that hackers impersonated the group Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and sent him an email informing him that one of his Instagram posts was flagged for copyright issues.
The email said he had between 24 and 48 hours to click the button to “dispute” the requests before his account was disabled or deleted forever.
Two minutes after clicking the button, the Brisbane mother received an email informing her that her Instagram password and email address had been changed.
“It’s been a long seven days for me,” Ms Van Dijk told Daily Mail Australia.
“I knew people were losing money every day.”
Scammers tricked mothers into investing in fake bitcoin schemes, saying that if they deposited $1,000, they could make $7,000 in two hours.
In February, the Instagram account of a mother of two in Brisbane was targeted by cybercriminals who stole her thousands of loyal followers using a fake bitcoin scheme.
At least a dozen mothers following the Lunchbox Mini account have been tricked into “investing” $1,000 from their hard-earned savings, one of whom is pregnant with their third child.
They went to great lengths to arrange bank and business statements under Ms. Van Dijk’s name to try to prove the plan was legitimate.
At least a dozen mothers, one of whom is pregnant with their third child, have been tricked into “investing” $1,000 from their hard-earned savings.
Ms. Van Dijk told scammers she believed the extra money could mean her hardworking husband could spend more time with the baby.
The scammers pretending to be the mother of two said they would see a return on their investment in the woman “my children swore on their lives”.
After the mothers initially transferred $1,000, they were required to spend an additional $7,000 to access the money.
The scammers guaranteed they’d get $30,000 if they deposited $7,000, and most moms had sniffed a mouse at this point and backed off.
However, one woman lost a total of $8,000 that she borrowed from her relatives, and none of the victims got their money back.
Ms Van Dijk said she spent three “heartbreaking” hours assessing the damage on her Instagram page and sent a personal voicemail to apologize to the victims.
Scammers tricked mothers into investing in fake bitcoin schemes, telling the women that if they invested $1,000, they could make $7,000 in two hours.
Ms Van Dijk said she spent three “heartbreaking” hours assessing the damage on her Instagram page and sent a personal voicemail to apologize to the victims.
Some women blocked him after they realized their money would never come back in scams that cost the entrepreneur hundreds of followers.
He learned of the scam, which dominated his Instagram page, through posts on Facebook and his website.
Most were from women who had deposited money and wanted updates on the return, or from worried husbands who wanted to verify that they were legitimate.
On February 18, Ms. Van Dijk took to her Instagram Stories to announce that she had regained control of her account and said it was a video “imprinted in her memory”.
He apologized to his followers for enduring the endless bitcoin spam and said knowing they were being contacted was the “hardest thing”.
The Brisbane mother said she could only regain control of her account after reaching out to a family friend with an Instagram link.
He uses authentication apps on his phone that require a six-digit number to log into his Instagram account from another device.
Ms. Van Dijk believes her small business has been targeted by cybercriminals because of her extremely caring and loyal followers.
“When there is a high level of engagement on your account, Instagram will reward you and make you stand out,” he explains.
“And these moms trusted me.”
It comes as experts warn that with the rise of cyberattacks, small businesses on social media remain an easy target for scammers.
Phil Parisis, Managing Director of Business Australia Products, said he has seen an increase in the number of accounts hackers infiltrate to defraud customers.
“Many small businesses rely on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for most of their marketing or to stay in touch with their customers, and cybercriminals are increasingly seeing this as an easy target,” he said.
Phil Parisis, Managing Director of Business Australia Products (pictured), said he has seen an increase in the number of accounts hackers infiltrated to defraud customers.
“One click is all it takes to lose everything.”
Australians lost more than $8m in social media scams last month, nearly four times more than in the same period last year.
There is also a 40% increase in the number of reported attacks.
Last July, the Australian Cyber Security Center (ACSC) reported a 60% increase in ransomware attacks against Australian organizations.
In September, the ACSC estimated that organizations and individuals paid $33 billion in costs related to both hackers and attacks last year.
Source: Daily Mail
