CLEVELAND — A Northeast Ohio man is frustrated after weeks of posts on his Facebook page that he says he didn't even post. Ethan Tomins received a notification his email and phone number had been changed on his account. On Thursday, he's still locked out.
Tomins said whoever has control of his Facebook account is advertising big-ticket items for sale like cars, TVs, PlayStations, and more.
"Apparently, I'm running a big crypto empire. I have my face on the side of a semi-truck," Tomins said.
Tomins says he was concerned because his friends didn't know fact from fiction.
"I was golfing one time, and my friend came running across the course and he literally had 4,000 dollars ready to be sent. All he had to do was hit send and he [thought] he would check with me first, and I'm like oh my gosh thank you for checking," Tomins said.
This is not the first time News 5 has looked at this very issue.
In Sept. 2023, Debbie McKinney said her page was hacked the same way. McKinney said that person was using her profile to advertise tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.
RELATED: Stark County woman said hacker using her account to scam friends, family out of Taylor Swift tickets
"I was completely helpless. There was no way to get this down," McKinney said.
Tomins and McKinney admit they did not have two-factor authentication on their accounts.
Cybersecurity expert Alex Hamerstone with TrustedSec said there is another common mistake folks make regarding their online security. He said never to use the same password on multiple sites.
"Oftentimes, that's how this happens. Somebody reused a password, and that password was leaked somewhere else," Hamerstone said.
Tomins said after numerous reports to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, his hacked account is still posting.
"It would be so much easier if I could talk to someone on Facebook," Tomins continued, "it leads to what else could be hacked? I've changed every password that I can think of, all banking accounts, investments."
News 5 reached out to Meta on Thursday, but we have not heard back.
