An established Southport business owner is distraught after hackers hijacked her Facebook accounts, stole hundreds of pounds from her account and tried to fleece some of her customers.
Lisa Kedian, who owns Lisasbigballoon, has spent the past three years building up her reputation – and her customer base – by bringing fun and colour to people’s events with balloons.
Over 4,500 local people were following and engaging with Lisa’s original Facebook account until she was suddenly locked out of it – and out of her personal Facebook account – by scammers.
She now wants to encourage people to ignore the original stolen account and to instead follow her new one: Lisa Kedian New Lisasbigballoon
Lisa, who also works as a nurse at Southport & Ormskirk NHS Hospital Trust, wants to warn other social media users and business owners of her traumatic experience so it doesn’t happen to them.
Lisa said: “My personal Facebook account and business page Lisasbigballoon have been hacked.
I can’t get back into them.
“I had over 4,500 Southport people following these pages.
“Please for your own safety remove yourselves from these pages immediately.
Lisa Kedian owner of Lisasbigballoon in Southport
“I am absolutely gutted to say the least.
“I have spent the past three years building my business page and it’s all gone.
“Not only this but they have accessed my PayPal via here and managed to take money from my account.
“I’d like to ask people to join my new account instead.”
The hackers have been in place for the past couple of years, stealthily stealing Lisa’s accounts, her data, and small amounts of money that wouldn’t be easily spotted.
Lisa said: “It came to light when PayPal contacted me to say that there had been a surprise sum of £90 paid out of my account. It was nothing to do with me.
“These scammers had hacked into my account since January 2021.
“When they got in, they turned off notifications from PayPal so it was more difficult to spot any payments going out that shouldn’t have been.
Lisa Kedian owner of Lisasbigballoon in Southport
“The sums going out every now and then were tiny – £1.70 here, £2.89 there.
“I didn’t notice them for ages. But they quickly added up to over £700.
“One payment for £24.99 came out at 12.45am on 1st January! I would have either been celebrating New Year’s Eve then or fast asleep in bed.
“I have been in touch with my bank and with payPal, but it has been very difficult.
“They are only willing to recognise my losses from the past 12 months, but nothing from before then.
“I am meticulous about checking my bank account now, watching every penny going in and out.
“I would encourage other people and other business owners to carefully check your accounts regularly and keep an eye out for anything unusual going out. It doesn’t have to be big amounts.
“If this can happen to me, it can happen to everyone. Everyone is vulnerable.
Lisa Kedian owner of Lisasbigballoon in Southport
“I have since been working with a social media expert, Phil Gee, on strengthening my security measures on my social media accounts, installing extra authenticator apps and things like that.
“Losing my business page on Facebook has been a traumatic experience for so many reasons.
“I have lost all my customers I have tried so hard to build over the past three years. I can’t contact people on there and they think they are messaging me but they’re messaging the hackers.
“Last week I prepared an order for a customer, but she never arrived to collect her balloons – she wouldn’t have been able to get in touch with me.
Lisa Kedian owner of Lisasbigballoon in Southport
“I am concerned about other customers being messaged by people pretending to be me.
“I have tried to sort this out with Facebook, but it has not been an easy process.
“I would encourage people to leave and report my old account and to join my new one instead.
“I also have an Instagram account, although many of my customers who are on Facebook may not also be on Instagram.
“This whole experience has been a nightmare, it has been really horrible.
“I wouldn’t wish this to happen to other people.
“I really want people to know that this can happen to anyone.”
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