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What To Do If Your Facebook or Twitter Account is Hacked

Guest post by: Donna Gunter

Article Overview: It's no longer a matter of IF your Twitter or Facebook account will be hacked, but simply WHEN. Many of the messages from a hacked account are linked to a virus or some type of malware that either infects your computer or will gain access to your account and send all of your friends and followers spammy messages. Here are steps you can take if your Twitter or Facebook account is hacked:

What To Do If Your Facebook or Twitter Account is Hacked

Unfortunately, this scenario is a reality for all of us who use social networking -- it's not a matter of IF your Twitter or Facebook

account will be hacked, but simply WHEN. I've been on the receiving end of messages from my friends whose accounts have been hacked. The message typically compliments me on some body part or requests me to click on a link to view a video of myself. Also, there are usually a number of misspellings in the message.

Be very careful when you get those kinds of messages, even when they are coming from trusted friends who would normally not engage in this type of behavior. Many of the messages are linked to a virus or some type of malware that either infects your computer or will gain access to your account and send all of your friends and followers spammy messages. If you do slip and click on one of these links, pay attention to what your virus scanning software tells you, especially if you get a security warning about a site.

If your Twitter account is hacked:

1. Visit Twitter's information page for problem resolution

2. Log out of Twitter

3. Clear your browser cache (your browsing history and cookies and private info) and close down your browser.

For Internet Explorer: Go to Tools > Internet Options, and then click on the "Delete" button under Browsing History. Check all of the boxes (except InPrivate Filtering data) and click on the "Delete" button.

For Firefox: Go to Tools > Clear Recent History, and then click on the down-arrow next to "Details", check all of the boxes, and select "Everything" for the time range to clear.

4. Open a new browser window, log into Twitter, and change your password. You can also use the Twitter password reset feature to set a new password before logging in again.

5. Visit your settings page and check your Connections. Revoke access for any third-party application that you don't recognize.

6. Submit a support request to let them know you have taken all of the proper steps to reset your account and to request that your direct messaging capability be restored. You can also include info on any statuses that weren't posted by you in the body of the request.

7. Update your password in all of your third party applications as well. If a third party application (like Facebook, Twitterrific, Twhirl, etc.) is trying to use your old password to access your tweets, it will lock you out of your account.

If your Facebook account is hacked:

1. Visit Facebook's information page for problem resolution

2. If you are still able to access your login email address, then use the "Forgot your password" link to prompt an email from

Facebook with a password reset code. If you can't access your account, then use the link above.

3. Clear your browser cache (your browsing history and cookies and private info) and close down your browser as described above.

4. Your account could also have been phished/hacked by a phishing web site, worm, or malicious software. To ensure that all is safe again, refer to the "Warnings" section on the Facebook link noted above.

Part of the problem with Twitter, in particular, is that most people use some type of URL shortening service to reduce a long URL to one that they can easily include in their 140 character status update. Here's how you can "spy" on URL shortening services:

1. For Bit.ly: This tool is a Firefox Add-on allows you to hover over bit.ly links on any web page and see a "Preview" of the page title and long URL. This Add-on claims to work for TinyURL as well. One of the benefits of this add-on is that you can also see the number of clicks for the shortened links as well as bios/profiles for

host's Twitter names you hover over (including @names). This even works in my HootSuite account.

2. For TinyURL: You can preview where a TinyURL.com URL leads either by adding the word "preview" in your short link so that your link resembles.

Take care when using Twitter and Facebook. Trust your intuition, and if something doesn't look or feel right, ignore it or delete it before clicking on it. You will have probably saved yourself hours or headache in trying to restore a hacked account.

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Article Tags: Donna Gunter, Facebook account, Get More Clients Online, hacked, hacking, OnlineBizUcom, Twitter account



Related Forum Posts
Re: Facebook or Twitter? - Thanks for the feedback guys! I personally started with Twitter and am now moving over to Facebook. I polled people on both my accounts and (not surprisingly) the Twitter people said Twitter and the Facebook people said Facebook! The actual order of my social media presence looks like this: 1) LinkedIn (with little success) 2) Twitter 3) YouTube 4) Facebook
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - I use Facebook pages for Business and rarely ever use Twitter. I hace lost count of the no. of Hotels that I have visited, regarding their marketing campaigns, that may have 5k Facebook Fans and only 100 followers on Twitter. It is a lot more difficult to engage with people on Twitter and thus harder to gain traction. If you are a business like Nike, then Twitter is great, but if you are an SME, then focus on Facebook or LinkedIn (if you are providing a professional service.) You can always have your Facebook feed directly in to Twitter, so you can have a presence on both, but do the work on one. Also check out ping.fm for managing campaigns - it is a free tool, and a great time saver.
Re: Twitter direct messages qustion - Twitter just takes so much time reading through updates and socializing with people, without much benefit, in my opinion. I sometimes post updates myself when I have time or feel I have something to share. My blog posts are automatically updated to Twitter and Facebook. In fact, I get more of a response to my updates from Facebook than I do from Twitter. I would much rather spend more time on Facebook.
Re: Facebook or Twitter? - Hi Evan, Good question, I would tell entrepreneurs to start with Twitter, not because I think it is better but because it is more immediate and user friendly. Facebook has a lot more options and is better developed but can be very confusing to someone who is trying to build a business. More experienced entrepreneurs may prefer Facebook over Twitter because of the applications available but I must say that Twitter are not standing still in this area so things could be completely different this time next year. regards, Mal.
Re: Facebook or Twitter? - Facebook no doubt has overtook Twitter as top social media and market place but I still get best and bunch traffic from Twitter rather than Facebook. For getting traffic on Facebook large network is a must while the use of hash tags in twitter makes te promotion much easily reachable to even those who are not in your network. Several times I have got replies from users not being followed/following. Main reason of Facebook being on top is connecting and integrating the network in better and spacious way by ads and other social moves.


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