Facebook 'sorry' after Port Solent car meet organiser's page hacked by scammers and permanently disabled - before The News' intervention

Jason White, who organises Port Solent’s car meets via his Facebook page, was locked out of his account last month before he embarked on a ‘nightmare’ period that left him ‘banging my head against a brick wall’. It culminated in Jason being told his page was being removed forever for posts he had never published – and he is still unsure what was posted.

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But after a six-week battle, Jason finally got access back to his account after The News’ involvement. A message from Facebook said: ‘It looks like your account was disabled by mistake. Your account has been reactivated and you should now be able to log in. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.’

Jason, delighted after finally getting his page back he thought was lost forever, said: ‘Without you I’m sure my account would have been disabled for life. It’s ludicrous when I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m so happy to have it back.’

Jason’s ordeal started on February 7 when Facebook warned his account had been ‘compromised’ and instructed him to change his password. But within minutes mysterious hackers had seized control of his account and Jason was locked out.

A subsequent exchange of emails between Jason and Facebook’s security team informed him his account was suspended for breaching Facebook’s community standards – despite the hackers being responsible for the posts. He was then given 30 days to appeal the decision if he disagreed. He was given a link to log in to Facebook – but could not access his account because his log-in details had been changed when he was hacked.

Jason said: ‘It’s a nightmare. You can’t get on Facebook because the account has been hacked. There’s no phone number and the email support is probably just robots. You can’t get anywhere with Facebook.

‘It’s been so frustrating. It’s like banging my head against a brick wall. It’s ludicrous you cannot speak to anyone.’

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To compound matters, a message was sent by hackers to the Port Solent car meet Facebook page telling Jason he would need to pay to get his Facebook account back. The car enthusiast saw the message after he instructed a Port Solent Facebook admin to make a separate Facebook account of Jason’s admin to the Port Solent page.

Jason, who also organises Classic Car Sunday in Alton, continued: ‘I’ve heard of people losing access to Facebook after being hacked. The whole thing is weird. I have no idea who was behind it or how they hacked it. I even had two-step authentication to access my page.

‘Not having access made it difficult to organise the car meets. I had to get other people to post on my behalf. It was also worrying to think I would lose my Facebook page forever with all the pictures on there and friends I was connected to from over the years. I lost access to Messenger as well.’

He added: ‘It’s amazing what (The News) has done. I can’t thank you enough.’

A spokeswoman for Facebook said: ‘We have recovered the account and a password reset link has been sent.’

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