'Hackers stole my shop's Instagram account and demanded a €1k ransom'

A small business owner has told how hackers have hijacked her shop's Instagram account and are holding it to ransom. Cyber criminals sent Sacha Lees, owner of Stylejunky boutique in Sale, messages out of the blue demanding €1,000 to regain access to her account.

Sacha, 52, has spent 10 years building her 26,000 followers and says it's the 'main source' of attracting customers. So when the account suddenly disappeared she said takings 'plummeted'.

She said: "We are a small independent business. Instagram is the main source of getting customers to shop with us and we built up a really solid following.

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"It's not just the 26,000 followers it's the reach that having that many followers brings. For a small business it's massive.

"It's having a massive impact on business. My takings have plummeted."

Sacha had applied for a verified blue tick from Instagram so when, one Sunday morning, she saw a email claiming to be from Meta saying her application had been successful she opened it. Within minutes she had been locked out of her account and received a WhatsApp message from the hackers demanding €1,000 to be let back in.

It read: "Hey.. I have your account and I want to give your account back. I don't care your account my only goal is money so if you pay me 1000€ I will give your account back deffinitely! Payment: Crypto or Paypal."

Sacha says she's 'tried everything' to get back into the account without success. She has reported the hack to Greater Manchester Police's cyber crime unit, who have tracked it back to an IP address in Istanbul.

But she says despite numerous messages to Instagram and parent company Meta, neither Sacha or the police have received a reply.

She said: "I didn't think it was real. I was in absolute shock. I've tried everything to get back into the account but it just won't work.

"The police have been incredibly supportive. They have been the most helpful out of anybody.

"But I've not had one reply from Instagram or Meta, nothing. It's a battle with Instagram.

"There's no helpline, no support, just nothing. I'm spending so much time trying to get my page back I'm not focussing on the business. The fact that it can be pulled out from under you, just like that, is a hard pill to swallow."

Instagram says it is investigating the issue and encouraged all users to create a strong password, enable two factor authentication and to be suspicious of emails or messages asking for personal details.