Hello,
I keep facing this situation in which my mother (60s) and her friends (aprox. same age) keep getting hacked on facebook.
The attacker somehow enter their account and send message to random people telling a long story about being in debt and asks for money (not a large sum, something like 500 US dollars (I am from Brazil)). My mother and her friends do not transfer the money of course because they know each other, but somewhat distant friends do. In fact I am quite happy/surprised about how people can be this helpful/naive.
They are quite oblivious about technology as a whole and use facebook/instagram etc just like whatsapp, for messaging. I've ran the obvious measures (changing passwords, locking content etc) and taught them the basics about how the www works and security etc. But not only the hacking continues (even with new passwords and 2FA) but now it is appearing in a new form: they simply clone the profile with public photo and name and starts a new conversation. It is even worse in Instagram since: 1 - they don't usually message there so there is no older conversation not appearing 2 - there is not the concept of friends, just followers.
I've gone to the police multiple times by now, since they cannot explain to the officers what is happening. Using the bank account provided by the hacker they found some guys, but apparently these guys were hacked too and the hacker(s) is(are) using their account as a proxy.
I don't know what to do, really. I am a techie (CS MS, 10+ years of experience, worked in several areas, including networks) but I am feeling powerless. Every 2 weeks something happens over the realm of Facebook/Instagram.
What can I do?
How are the bad actors getting the 2FA code? Are the phones hacked too? Are the phones on a rogue tower? Why is someone spending time messing with old ladies? There has to be a reason why they are a target for someone to spend this much energy.. Good luck!