Your friends contact you and tell you that they have received a strange Facebook message from you. You know you didn’t send it, so you realize that your Facebook account has most likely been hacked. Then what do you do?
This is a very common scenario that happens to Facebook users almost every day. It could be a nasty link you clicked on at some point, or even a phishing email you opened. Whatever the cause, a hacker somehow got access to your Facebook password and started contacting all your Facebook friends and family to click on a malicious link too.
Fortunately, there are many things you can do to recover your Facebook account if you’ve been hacked. How successful you will be with these options largely depends on how early you caught the hacking activity.
Instantly reset your email password
There are two ways hackers will try to prevent you from accessing your Facebook account. The first, and usually the first thing people notice, is that they will change your Facebook password.
But what hackers want to do, if they can, is change the password of your email account that is connected to your Facebook account. The reason for this is that it will prevent you from requesting a Facebook password reset.
When a hacker accesses your Facebook account, they don’t have access to your email account. So one of the first things you’ll want to do is reset your email account password to make sure hackers stay locked out of it.
To do this, in Gmail, just open Gmail settings, select Accounts and Import , and Change password .
Log into your account, and then enter the new password. Select Change password to finish.
Now that you have your Facebook registered email account fully protected from the hacker, you are ready to reset your Facebook password.
Reset Facebook password
If you can no longer access your Facebook account, the easiest way to fix it is to reset your password. You can do it from the Facebook login page. Just click on Forgot your account? under the access fields.
All you have to do to reset your Facebook account password is enter the email address you used to sign up for a Facebook account for the first time.
Once you log in to the correct email account, Facebook will provide you with a selection of all registered email accounts where you can receive your password reset confirmation email.
Select the email and select Continue to initiate the password change request. You will receive an email with a link that you can click to finish changing your Facebook password.
Most of the time, once you’ve changed your Facebook password in this way, the hacker has lost complete access to your Facebook account. Now you can send a message to your family and friends and let them know that your Facebook account is no longer hacked.
Facebook registered email changed
If the hacker has already entered your Facebook settings and changed your registered email address, you will not be able to reset your Facebook password using the email method.
You are not completely out of luck. Luckily, most people stay connected to Facebook automatically with their mobile phones. As long as the hacker hasn’t logged you out of all your devices, you can use your mobile phone to reset your password and get your email account back to normal.
Using your mobile phone, open the Facebook app, tap the menu, and tap Settings & Privacy . Next, tap Settings .
On the next screen, tap Security & login . This will take you to the security area of ​​your account where you can change your Facebook account password.
On the next screen, tap Change Password to start the password change process.
A password change window will appear in which you can type your current password and the new password you want to set. You will have to type the new password twice.
Select Save Changes to complete the password change process.
If this password change worked from your mobile phone, you have now blocked the hacker and recovered your Facebook account.
Protection of your Facebook account
You can reduce the risk of a Facebook hack with additional security features. By default, none of these features are turned on, but when you turn them on, it’s almost impossible for someone to hack into your Facebook account.
Add trusted contacts
Go into your Facebook Settings and select Security & login in the left navigation menu.
Select the Edit button next to Choose the friends you want to contact if you get blocked .
Select the Choose friends link , and in the pop-up window, select Choose trusted contacts .
Choose at least three of your trusted Facebook contacts and select Confirm .
Now, if you can’t access your account, Facebook will contact your trusted friends to help you get into your account.
