Surviving a Meta Ads Account Hack: A Personal Account of Lessons Learned and Tips for Moving Forward

If you’re a business owner or marketer, you know how crucial advertising on Meta (formerly Facebook) can be for driving sales and engagement. However, what happens when your Meta Ads account is hacked and you’re left scrambling to fix the problem? In this article, I’ll share my personal experience with a hacked Meta Ads account and the valuable lessons I learned along the way. My goal is to provide useful insights to help you better protect your business and navigate the often-complex world of Meta advertising.

The Hack and Its Aftermath:

On March 6th, my partner’s Facebook account, which was linked to our Meta Business Account, was hacked. As soon as I realized what had happened, I checked the Meta Business Manager and discovered that it was gone. It was clear that the hackers had taken control of the account and locked us out. The situation quickly spiraled into a highly stressful ordeal. Believe me, it’s stressful.

As fast as possible, I opened a case with Meta, and a representative assured me they would work on resolving the issue. However, my partner’s personal account was linked to an old email address that he no longer had access to, complicating the recovery process even further. The next day, I had a scheduled call with a Meta marketing expert who discovered that the hackers had created new ads for a fraudulent sneakers webpage with a 5,500 EUR/day budget, using our…