A business owner has been left ‘heartbroken’ after she was targeted by online hackers and she lost access to her Instagram account, which she had been using for 10 years.
Victoria Christie, 38, who runs Victoria Christie Permanent Make-up in Fleet, had her Meta social media accounts hacked overnight in June.
She was able to restore her Facebook, personal Instagram and WhatsApp, but her business Instagram was permanently disabled, causing her to lose 10 years’ worth of clients, 5,500 followers and her portfolio.
Victoria said: “It’s been a nightmare. It’s 10 years of work down the drain.
“This is my livelihood and my business has been closed overnight over nothing I've done wrong.”
Victoria said her booking rate has gone down, as she previously had 90 per cent of her client enquiries come from Instagram, under her handle @victoria_christie_pmu.
The account now states that it has been disabled due to alleged violations of Community Standards and that no further review is available.
She doesn’t understand the issue, as she has been let back into her Facebook account, which shows the same content and information.
She said: “I went on to my other accounts that are connected to try and speak to someone and it was just all AI systems saying, no, sorry, that account's closed and you can't do anything about it.
“I just find it completely shocking that there's not a single bit of human review and they can just shut down the business overnight.”
She attempted to contact Meta through emails and letters and received one response saying she had to write to Meta in California yet received no response when she did.
She contacted a solicitor who wrote a strongly worded letter to Meta but was told it would cost her £26,000 to take Meta to court,
She said: “Goodbye to my Instagram account then, because I haven't got 26 grand to pay on that kind of thing.
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“I've tried everything. I've literally tried everything, and I haven’t got anywhere.”
Now she has set up a new Instagram account and has attempted to find people that followed her original one.
She said: “It’s been pretty heartbreaking because it's been so stressful.”
Meta has been contacted for comment.
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