Long Island Woman Live Streams Conversation With Hacker Who Took Over Her Instagram, Demanded $500 Ransom
LONG BEACH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Hackers are taking over social media accounts and demanding ransoms.
Collette Morales, of Long Beach, publicly streamed her appeal to a hacker who hijacked her Instagram account and demanded $500 ransom.
"I'm not going to pay you to give me my Instagram back. I just need you to be a good human being," Morales said.
"I'm not a good human being," the hacker said.
It was an attempt to reason with a young criminal.
"You can do the right thing right now and stop stealing from people," Morales said.
"Life has shown me a lot of ... things," the hacker said.
"Life has shown me a lot of ****ed up things, too, but I don't steal from other people," Morales said.
Multiple video chats went nowhere.
"I asking you nicely to please give me my identity back. What you're doing is really wrong," Morales said.
"Send the Bitcoin so I can give you back your account," the hacker said.
The fitness instructor says after responding to a direct message, suddenly someone else was posting as her -- endorsing Bitcoin and messaging her friends to invest.
"He's got full control my account now, so he reads my messages," Morales told CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff.
She's hoping her words will change a lost soul's ways.
"He's a kid and it's sad because I think he's young and he's misled," Morales said.
"I'm literally never going to give back this account without getting something off it," the hacker said in a chat.
"People like you make this world an ugly place. It's not your account to be using," Morales told the hacker.
Buddy Casimano also fell victim.
"I woke up one day and all of a sudden I had no access to my Insta," he said.
The hacker solicited his friends to buy Bitcoin.
"I started getting messages, 'Oh my god, did you make this money? I'm about to invest.' And I was like, no, no," Casimano said.
He got his account back using Instagram's facial verification.
That hasn't worked for Morales, who uses social media for her livelihood and community service.
"People are losing money, they're losing contacts, their lives are being hijacked. And people need to know what they can do to prevent this from happening," business partner Ingrid Dodd said.
Cyber security experts says it's organized crime and paying ransom may not end the siege.
"There is no guarantee if you pay them, you get your stuff back. You're funding future people getting hurt and the ideal scenario is have good cyber security practices," said Keith Strassberg, CEO of Cybersafe Solutions.
In desperation, Morales had a friend pay the hacker $50 in Bitcoin, but her account remains hijacked.
The Nassau County District Attorney says anyone impacted by ransomware is advised to contact both their local police department and the DA's cybercrimes unit at 516-571-2553.
