Hackers drained friends' accounts by faking Melissa Stombaugh's sale

A Phoenix woman says hackers took control of her Facebook account to steal money from her friends.

Melissa Stombaugh reports that the intruders posted messages claiming she needed to place her father in assisted living. The posts said she was forced to sell his belongings. Friends saw the listings and sent funds to a Venmo account controlled by the scammers.

The stolen funds covered the cost of items listed for sale. Stombaugh noted the list included a truck and a Peloton bike. These were high-value goods that appeared available at low prices. The victims believed they were helping a friend in a difficult situation. The money did not reach Stombaugh. It went directly to the hackers.

Confusion grew when buyers arrived at Stombaugh's home to pick up their purchases. They expected to see the items listed online. Stombaugh did not recognize the women. One visitor asked about the truck she had paid a deposit for. Stombaugh had no record of the transaction. The visitors realized they had been communicating with an impersonator, not the account owner.

The attackers changed the email address and linked devices on Stombaugh's profile. This action locked her out of her own account. She created a fake profile to contact the scammers directly. She posed as a new person to see if she could buy an item from them. This attempt helped confirm the account was compromised. Stombaugh and her friends reported the issue to Facebook. The company told them the post did not violate any standards. Facebook decided to leave the post online.

Stombaugh said she did not have two-factor authentication enabled before the breach. She learned the feature links devices to an account. This makes it harder for scammers to take over a profile even if they have the password. She has since enabled the setting on her other accounts. Facebook did not respond to inquiries about her specific case. Stombaugh said she now wishes she had known about the security tool earlier. She said she would delete her Facebook account if she could. She enjoyed sharing family memories but found the cost of the breach too high.

The incident highlights a common method of social media fraud. Scammers use hijacked accounts to target trusted contacts. They create urgent narratives to prompt quick payments. Victims often send money before verifying the request. Stombaugh's experience shows how quickly a locked-out account can lead to financial loss for friends. The lack of immediate action by the platform allowed the scam to continue. Stombaugh remains locked out of her primary social media profile.