You know when something happens and your heart stops and you start shaking?
I had that experience yesterday when someone was able to hack into part of my Facebook business profile.
I got sucked in by someone faking an email from a big podcast and pretending to want to do a Facebook Live with me. So we had this meeting to set it up, and they asked me to add an additional email to my Business Profile so they could invite me–so I added my back up email, that I have major two factor authentication on it (as well as on my Facebook).
I don’t know how they did it, but they somehow managed to lock me out of my business profile and add a bunch of new people to it.
So yesterday we spent a lot of the day panicking, and what we think we’ve realized is that, while they have access to my business profile which controls ads, etc., they don’t seem to have done anything with my page and they don’t seem to have page permissions yet. We don’t know if that will change, but so far we’re okay.
I didn’t enter my passwords anywhere. I didn’t give anyone else access to my account. It’s the scariest thing, and it must be a security vulnerability on Facebook itself, because according to Reddit (we spent a lot of time on Reddit yesterday) a lot of people are going through this.
So I guess I won’t be on that big podcast after all! (doesn’t really matter which one it is).
Here’s the problem:
If we’re going to change the conversation, we have to be part of the conversation.
My goal here at Bare Marriage is to change the evangelical conversation about sex and marriage to something healthy, evidence-based, and biblical (or Jesus-centered, really). I want things to be healthy! I don’t want toxic teachings anymore.
But changing the conversation means that you have to actually be conversing with people, and the best way to do that is social media. So I spend likely 1/3 to 1/2 of my time on social media, answering comments, creating posts, responding to others, etc.
I’ve invested so much time into all of my platforms over the last few years, and on the one hand I often enjoy it. It’s how I feel like I “meet” so many of you! My posts often get a lot more comments when I share them on social media than just here (and I wish more people would comment here too for posterity’s sake!).
But the problem with social media is that you don’t actually own it. You’re using another company’s platform, and they don’t have to help you. Facebook has it set up that you can report easily an account or a post that’s impersonating someone else. But if someone has access to your account, but hasn’t done anything yet? There’s actually no way to report that easily. We reported it in two different areas that have nothing to do with hacking, and I don’t know if they’ll pay attention at all.
It’s just frustrating, and terribly demoralizing when you’ve spent so long building something.
But we can’t just turn our backs on it, because that’s where people are who need to hear the message of The Great Sex Rescue and She Deserves Better!
Here’s where the good news comes in.
In the middle of our panic, while we were scared they were going to take the page down, Rebecca created a backup Facebook page and posted on the main one, inviting people to like it. I woke up this morning and it already had almost 3,000 followers.
That’s pretty amazing, considering that we only shared the link with one Facebook post, and nowhere else!
So that tells us that you all are really loyal, and you want to HELP us get the word out about healthy stuff! So in a horrible, no good, very bad day–that was a big encouragement. Thank you.
What you can do to help me (and others!)
The truth is that all of us are vulnerable to losing one of our platforms. I still don’t know what will ultimately happen on Facebook, but I got caught WITHOUT sharing passwords or filling out forms or anything. It’s really scary.
So that’s why it’s so important, when you enjoy and support a creator, that you follow them on multiple platforms, so that if one is ever compromised, they can still reach you in other ways.
To bring my heart rate back down a bit (I’m still shaking, 20 hours later), can you all do me a favour and choose at least TWO of these to do, if you’re not already? That way I know that if any one thing ever falls, I can still talk to you all, and you can still find me!
- Follow me on Facebook. Right now my original Facebook Page is still working, and we’re going to keep it going. But follow our Backup AS WELL so that, if it all goes south, we can quickly rebuild!
- Follow me on Instagram! This is the account with the most engagement, and I’m trying to be more consistent about posting there too!
- Subscribe to our emails. You can choose either the daily blog or the weekly summary. Rebecca always writes something super cool in the weekly summary that only subscribers see, and it gets a phenomenal open rate! People really enjoy it.
- Subscribe to our podcast! And please rate it 5 star too, wherever you listen!
- Follow me on Twitter or Threads.
- Join us on our Patreon–to really show us support!
If you’re only going to choose 1, please subscribe to our emails! That’s the one we have the most control over! (Although we’d love more patrons!)
And this is true not just for me, but for any content creator you really love. Please follow them on at least two platforms, so that if anything ever happens to one, you can still find them–and they don’t lose you. It’s so demoralizing when you spend years building something for someone to be able to take it away, and for that platform (like Facebook) to honestly not care. The lack of help and support for things like this is stunning.
I know several big creators that have lost their Facebook pages, some permanently, and some for a few months before they were able to reclaim it. I know others who have had their Twitter hacked. When you lose something huge like that, at least knowing that you haven’t lost everybody because you also have them on other platforms is a huge reassurance.
I hate, hate, hate the stress of this.
It was honestly a horrible day, and I’m gearing up for more of the same today as we see if there’s any more fallout.
I have edits to do on our marriage book (that I’m super excited about)! And I have some awesome ideas for some Instagram reels I wanted to create. But nothing got done yesterday, and I hate that. I hate that we all had to spend so much emotional and intellectual energy on this yesterday, and it took a huge toll.
I just want to talk about healthy stuff. I just want to create.
So thank you for supporting me, wherever you are! Thank you for your everyone’s encouragement on Facebook yesterday. And say a prayer for us today. I’d really like to stop shaking!
Following you on Facebook, main and backup, and went and followed on Instagram. Listen to your podcast on Spotify too. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much!
Oh no! How stressful!
This is why Facebook sucks as a company. They are slow to address problems that don’t directly affect their revenue stream. And the users aren’t actually their revenue stream.
I hope you’re able to get your page back, whether FB helps or not.
The weird thing is that THIS ACTUALLY IS THEIR REVENUE STREAM. Like they’re hacking the ads part. I don’t even get it. Why would they make it so hard to fix that?
I’ve followed and liked and subscribed. 🙂 And yes, CMT is right, Facebook sucks sometimes. A lot of people have left it for that reason.
I know! It’s definitely not as fun as it used to be! So far I think Threads is the most fun right now, but I’m sure that will be taken over by the swamp soon too.
Everything gets taken over by the swamp eventually. “Ensh—tification” is real, unfortunately!
It may not feel like encouragement, but I’m going to throw this out there anyway…
CELEBRATE that the enemy of our souls sees YOU as a big enough THREAT to him that he is actively working to take you out.
You’ve done such a great job of sharing the places you can be found, the places you share life-giving information! May God richly bless you for sharing Him with the world.
Great perspective!
I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this. I am following your backup FB page, am subscribed to your channel on YouTube, and get your weekly emails. Keep up all the awesome work you are doing for God’s kingdom!
Hey Sheila & Team, the email subscription page is not mobile friendly. I can open the page, but there is no form that I can see to enter my email to subscribe.
Thanks for all your work!! You’ve literally been life-changing for me <3
Oh, thank you for letting us know!
What a stressful happening!! I would hate to lose you all, too!!! It’s a much grander scale of the problem of losing your contacts on your phone… when we were younger and had our friends’ numbers memorized because we had to call from landlines (maybe even in the kitchen!), we didn’t worry about it because we knew everyone’s numbers. Now, I only know my husband’s number and my mom’s! I don’t even know my children’s! I’ve followed your back up instructions, but I’m praying you just get the resolution you need.❤️
I still dial numbers manually. I just can’t get out of the habit, even when they’re stored on my phone! But I only know about 6 numbers. 🙂
That actually made me laugh! Your memory will probably last longer than anyone else’s because you’re still remembering phone numbers!
My husband and I are praying for you! This situation is so scary and we’re so sorry you’re experiencing it.
May I recommend that you add your YouTube channel to your list of platforms? I didn’t see it linked on your BuzzSprout podcast page. I think a lot of people have YouTube accounts in order to subscribe to their favorite channels. I personally really enjoy YouTube channels’ community posts for announcements, discussion, and polls, though they don’t always get promoted a lot.
Sending hugs! Hope you can get some rest despite all this!
Oh, good idea!
Did you change the name of your FB page to Endlessly Stories? Or is that from the hackers?
I follow you on FB, instagram, email and your fantastic podcasts. Praying peace for you and swift resolution of this turmoil!
That’s the hackers! so please report that page if you see it!
Why can’t these idiots just set up their own danged page? That’s just ridiculous!
Soo sorry that you have to deal with thé répercussions of this. I also got hacked. It was only my email account, that got hacked last weekend but that was bad enough. The Hackers changed my password, so I also didn’t have any access. They even forwarded all my incoming mails to another email address. Unfortunately there was also not much I could do about it but on Monday I passed the identity check and got my account back, hopefully for good. So I know it is hard. Keep on fighting!
Oh, wow! That sounds awful! I’m glad you have your identity back now.