Facebook is still the biggest social media platform in the world. Even though Facebook provides world-class security for user accounts, wicked hackers can easily trap users and hack their accounts. Irrespective of knowing all the details to prevent hacking, users give in to the tempting traps of the hackers.
If your Facebook account has been hacked, you have to take immediate steps to recover your Facebook account. In this article, we will illustrate all the possible ways on how to recover a hacked Facebook account.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Can Facebook Account Be Hacked?
Part 2: How to Recover Hacked Facebook Account?
- Change & Reset Your Facebook Password
- Report Your Hacked Facebook Account to Facebook
- Recover Account Through Trusted Contacts
Part 3: How Facebook Accounts Get Hacked?
Part 4: What Should You Do to Protect Your Facebook Account?
Can Facebook Account Be Hacked?
When it comes to Facebook accounts getting hacked, many think that it is next to impossible. However, it is as easy as hacking any other online account as hackers come up with ingenious methods to trap Facebook users. Here are the signs that confirm a Facebook account has been hacked.
- Your Facebook password has been changed.
- You email address linked to your Facebook account has been changed.
- Your personal information on Facebook like your name, DOB, and address has been changed.
- Messages have been sent from your Facebook account that you have not sent.
- Friend requests have been sent from your Facebook account that you have not sent.
- Posts have been uploaded from your Facebook account that you have not uploaded.
How to Recover Hacked Facebook Account?
There are different methods available for Facebook account hacked how to recover. Depending on the condition of your hacked Facebook account, you have to select the appropriate recovery method.
1. Change & Reset Your Facebook Password
Once a hacker is successful in hacking your Facebook account, he has two options to choose from. He can operate your condition secretly without changing your password or deny you access to your Facebook account by changing your password immediately. Here is what to do in both scenarios.
Change Password (If You Can Log In)
If the hacker has hacked your Facebook account but has not changed password, you can log in to your account. This happens when the hacker wants to secretly access your account without you knowing about it. However, if you are certain that your account has been hacked from unrecognized login data, you need to change your Facebook password immediately.
Once you change your password, you should log out of all devices. Therefore, the hacker will lose access to your Facebook account from his device immediately. When he wants to log back in, he won't be able to as you have changed the password. Here are the steps you need to follow.
Step 1: Open Facebook app on your device. Tap on three-dash icon located at the top-right corner.
Step 2: Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap on Settings & Privacy option. Thereafter, tap on Settings option from the drop-down options.
Step 3: Tap on Password and Security option. Under Login heading, tap on Change Password option.
Step 4: Enter your current and new password and tap on Update Password button.
Step 5: Go back to the previous screen and under "Where you're logged in" section, tap on See All option.
Step 6: Tap on Log Out of All Sessions button.
Reset Password (If You Can't Log In)
If the hacker has hacked your Facebook account and changed your password, you won't be able to log into your account. If the hacker has not changed your email address, you can reset your account password and set a new password. Here are the steps to follow.
Step 1: Open Facebook app on your device. On the login page, tap on "Forgotten Password" option.
Step 2: You will be asked to enter the email address or phone number linked to your Facebook account.
Step 3: Select either "send code via email" or "send code via SMS" to verify that you are the owner of the Facebook account whose password you want to reset.
Step 4: Enter the code sent to your email address or phone number. Thereafter, you can follow the on-screen instruction to reset password and take control over your account again.
Moreover, you can opt for "log out of all sessions" option after resetting password and logging back into your account.
2. Report Your Hacked Facebook Account to Facebook
If the hacker has changed both your linked email address and phone along with your account password, you have to report your hacked account to Facebook so that they can recover your account. Here are the steps you need to follow.
Step 1: From your web browser, visit "facebook.com/hacked".
Step 2: Tap on "My Account Is Compromised" button.
Step 3: Enter the email address or username or full name to identify the account for Facebook.
Step 4: Once you have identified your account, enter the old password that the hacker has changed.
Step 5: Thereafter, you have to select what has happened to your account from the list of different scenarios.
Step 6: Once the identification process is done, follow the on-screen instruction to recover your hacked account. You will be shown the changes made to your account as well as the option to set a new password.
3. Recover Account Through Trusted Contacts
If you have set up some trusted contacts for your Facebook account beforehand, you can recover your account through them when your account gets hacked. You can set trusted contacts from Security and Login settings page.
Here are the steps on how to recover hacked Facebook account without email through your trusted contacts.
Step 1: Open Facebook app and tap on Forgotten Password option.
Step 2: Enter email address or phone number or username and tap on Search button to identify your Facebook account.
Step 3: Thereafter, you will be shown the list of linked emails where you want the recovery code. Here, you have to select the option "No longer have access to these?".
Step 4: You will be asked to enter a new email address to link to your account and tap on Continue.
Step 5: On the next screen, tap on "Reveal my trusted contacts" and you have to type the full name of your Trusted Contacts. They will get a special code that you have to fetch from them to recover your hacked account.
How Facebook Accounts Get Hacked?
There are various methods hackers employ to trick Facebook users and hack their accounts.
1. Guessing
Hackers fetch personal information from a target user's Facebook account such as full name, date of birth, and email address. Thereafter, they try to guess the password of the target user's Facebook account by permutations and combinations of the personal data. If the target user has set an easily predictable password with personal data, his account is likely to get hacked.
2. Phishing
Hackers design a fake phishing webpage that looks as real as the login page of Facebook. They send the link of the phishing webpage to the target user and convince him to open the webpage and follow the on-screen instructions. When the user keys in his Facebook username and password on the phishing webpage thinking it as the login page of Facebook, the username and password reach the hackers, and the account gets hacked.
3. Spyware
Deploying spyware on the target user's device has become the go-to method for hackers to hack Facebook accounts. Spyware downloads in the background when the target user opens the malicious link that hackers send him through message or email. The spyware stays hidden on the target person's phone and records everything the person types. Therefore, hackers can get the target person's login credentials, personal data as well as financial information.
4. Security Breach
Hackers are responsible for the data breach incident in apps that are connected to Facebook. There are apps that some users sign up with Facebook, and once hackers breach the security of these apps, they can get access to the linked Facebook accounts.
Similarly, if there has been a data breach incident took place for the email platform that you use, your email account's credentials can get leaked into the hacker's community. Once a hacker has your email account that is linked to Facebook, he can hack your Facebook account.
What Should You Do to Protect Your Facebook Account?
Now that you know about how to recover your Facebook account and how hackers hack Facebook accounts, it is time to focus on how to protect your Facebook account from getting hacked. Here are all the steps you have to execute.
1. Install a Professional Protection Software
We have stated that hackers employ spyware to hack Facebook accounts. To stop spyware from being active on your smartphone, you need to install a professional anti-spyware app that can provide all-around protection. We recommend ClevGuard Anti-Spy Guard app which not only scans and removes spyware but also provides real-time protection against them.
How ClevGuard Anti-Spy Guard Your Facebook Account?
Here are all the features of ClevGuard Anti-Spy that will help you to protect your Facebook account.
Detect Spyware & Remove Spyware Radically:
You can scan your phone regularly with ClevGuard Anti-Spy and spot if any spyware is active on your device. The app detects all the security threats present on your phone. You can review the threats and spyware and remove them immediately to prevent your Facebook account and phone from being hacked.
Protect Your Facebook & Phone in Real-time:
ClevGuard Anti-Spy app provides a real-time protection option through which it stays active on your phone and detects spyware that can breach the security of your phone and Facebook account. As soon it detects anything fishy and harmful, it alerts the user to take prompt action.
Check Email Data Leakage:
We have already stated that when your email account's security gets compromised, your linked Facebook account can be hacked. ClevGuard app allows you to check if your email account's credentials have been leaked in any data breach incident. The app also recommends certain steps to strengthen the security of your email account.
Protect Phone Camera & Microphone:
ClevGuard Anti-Spy app can detect when any installed app on your phone secretly tries to get access to your phone camera or microphone. ClevGuard immediately notifies the user so that such an app does not let hackers get access to your phone camera and mic and thereby, keeps your security and privacy stays intact.
Clean Junk Files:
Last but not least, ClevGuard app provides you with the option of cleaning junk files on your phone regularly. This will free up space in your device storage as well as speed up your phone.
Steps for Preventing Your Facebook Account Being Hacked
Here are the steps to install and use ClevGuard Anti-Spy to prevent your Facebook account from being hacked.
Step 1. Install ClevGuard Anti-Spy App
Click the "Google Play" button below to install ClevGuard Anti-Spy on your phone.
Step 2. Scan Your Phone
Open ClevGuard app after installing it. Tap on "Scan" option and let the app scan your phone for spyware and threats.
Step 3. Remove Spyware and Threats
After scanning gets over, you should review the list of threats and spyware the app has detected on your phone. You can decide which one to remove and which to ignore and finally, tap on "Resolve All" button.
2. Set Up 2-Factor Authentication
You should immediately set up 2-factor authentication on your Facebook account. With 2-FA turned on, when someone tries to log into your Facebook account, he will have to enter the OTP sent to your phone or the code shown on your authentication app.
Since the hacker cannot have them, he won't be able to log into your account even when he has your Facebook account username and password. Go to Settings & Privacy> Settings> Security and Login> Two-Factor Authentication option and set it up properly.
3. Disable Connected Apps
There are times when we sign up on various apps and websites by opting for Log In via Facebook option. When the security of these connected apps and websites gets compromised, the linked Facebook's accounts get vulnerable to getting hacked. Therefore, you need to remove the connected apps from your Facebook account so that the account stays safe.
You can manually sign up on the connected apps later on to use their services. Go to Settings & Privacy> Settings> Apps & Websites, and you will see all the connected apps and websites. Click on Remove buttons to remove them unless they are extremely trusted apps like WhatsApp or Instagram.
4. Use Complicated Password
Last but not least, you should not use any password that is easily guessable. It is true that complicated passwords are difficult to remember, but you should still use them as nothing matters more than your account's security. You can write down the complicated password of your Facebook account somewhere securely. Besides, once you log into your Facebook account from your device, you do not have to log in again and again.
Moreover, even if you forget your Facebook password, resetting it is rather easy. When it comes to settings a complicated password, it should be slightly length and a perfect combination of upper and lower case of letters, symbols, and numbers. Make it absolutely bizarre and meaningless so that no one can even think of it.
Final Words
We have answered your question on my Facebook account hacked how to recover. We have also stated how Facebook accounts get hacked so that you become aware of the methods hackers implement. Most importantly, we have illustrated how to prevent your Facebook account from being hacked. You should definitely install ClevGuard Anti-Spy app on your phone for complete security.