Gosport artist's livelihood 'jeopardised' after Facebook business account hacked and turned into Elizabeth Olsen page

Dan Williams, of Gosport, went to log on to the social media platform on June 11 only to discover the horrible realisation that his profile was compromised. Having not clicked on any links or spam emails, the 44-year-old was shocked to see his profile was changed out of the blue to impersonate the actress Elizabeth Olsen – famous for starring in Marvel films such as Avengers: Endgame.

There is no suggestion the person behind the malicious cyberattack is called Elizabeth Olsen. Mr Williams cannot access the account – danwilliamsart – leaving himself with an uncertain future.

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He told The News: ‘My livelihood has been completely jeopardised. Every time I tried to enter my email and password it said my details were wrong.

‘It was trying to send the recovery code to the hacker’s email which they put on. You’re stuck in a loop.’ Mr Williams also had £240 swiped from his bank account moments after the hack.

The money has since been refunded, but he had to cancel his bank cards. Mr Williams said he was left frustrated by Meta’s lack of direct customer service when trying to access his account.

‘It’s all automated,’ he added, ‘which I think is crazy for such a big company. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

‘There’s effectively nothing you can do.’ Mr Williams said he has come to terms with losing his personal profile but is worried about losing the business page which has 17,000 followers worldwide.

The artist, who’s used his creativity to make a full-time living for ten years, said he gets roughly 90 per cent of his commissions through the platform, and his business would be in ruins if it shuts down permanently.

‘I’m losing new customers everyday,’ he said. ‘People may be messaging me right now and I cannot access it at all.

‘I’ve always been careful with that because I know there are lots of hacks and scams going around. I have no idea how they’ve done this. It doesn’t make any sense.’ Mr Williams has a small backlog of eight commissions to keep his business afloat.

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He added that he has those customer details, so current orders won’t be missed. This is not the first time a small business owner has been targeted with a similar scam.

Jade Waddington, 33, lost access to two of her business pages and only found out after receiving an email saying someone logged into her account. The entrepreneur, of Wrose, West Yorkshire, told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus that her profile was changed to actress Lily Collins.

She managed to get her account back. Mr Williams has been in contact with Ms Waddington, who has helped him find contacts at Meta to reach out to, but to no avail.

‘There is absolutely no help out there, and from my research, lots of small businesses are being hit with this,’ the artist said.

‘I’ve been creating my business for the past ten years and it’s absolutely gutting to think that I might have to start from square one. I don’t want to think about it. I just hope I can get it back.’

Meta has been approached for comment.