Cork business owner warns others after Instagram account lost in cyberattack

Hackers initially offered to give the account back  for €10,000, then reduced it to €1,000, which wasn't paid

Charlene Corkery, founder ofLuxury gift company Box of Kindness, lost her business page and 14,000 followers in a cyberattack.

A Cork business owner has warned other small businesses about a “devastating” Instagram hack that saw her lose her business page and its 14,000 followers.

Luxury gift company Box of Kindness was founded by Charlene Corkery during the first Covid-19 lockdown and had garnered 14,000 followers on the brand’s Instagram account.

In the run-up to the company’s first birthday this July, Box of Kindness' Instagram account became the victim of a cyberattack that saw the owner locked out of the account, losing thousands of followers and all the pictures that were posted on the page.

Founder and director of the Little Island-based company Charlene Corkery said: “We’ve lost everything. I can’t share old posts, I can’t celebrate our first birthday. I’ve had to start again from a blank canvas. 

"These hackers don’t know what they have caused for me as a person.” 

Prior to the hack, approximately 80% of the company website’s traffic came from the brand’s Instagram, with customers also having the option to shop directly from the account.

“Before the account was hacked, I had about 40 unread messages which are now gone – that’s about two, maybe three grand worth of business that I can never get back.”

 

Charlene Corkery, owner of Box of Kindness discovered on Monday that her Instagram page had been hacked. 

On the day before the hack, Ms Corkery received an Instagram message from an account appearing to be the official account of Instagram, accusing her of copyright infringement and demanding her email address to rectify the issue.

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“I just went about my business, I didn’t even consider the possibility that this was a hacker because it looked so legitimate,” said Ms Corkery.

The next morning, Ms Corkery woke up to messages from friends and customers asking why the account was renamed and posts were deleted.

In an attempt to save the brand’s Instagram account, Ms Corkery consulted with the founder and CEO of SmartTech247, Ronan Murphy.

Mr Murphy reached out to the hackers who offered to give the account back to Ms Corkery for €10,000. 

After back-and-forth negotiations, the hackers reduced their asking price to €1,000, claiming they had found another buyer of the account for that price. Ms Corkery refused to pay them any money and has instead created a new Instagram account for the brand.

Since the hack and after Ms Corkery’s appeal through friends and influencers, the new account earned thousands of followers.

“I was so emotional. People have been so kind and have really rallied around me,” Ms Corkery said.

Ms Corkery is now warning other businesses, both small and large, of the dangers posed by hackers.

According to PWC’s latest Economic Crime Survey Report, cybercrime in Ireland accounted for 69% of all instances of fraud, double that experienced by global companies. Additionally, 13% of companies reported losses of over €5mn to fraud, with one-fifth of companies admitting to not knowing their losses or describing them as immeasurable.

“None of us are safe. They don’t care if you have three thousand followers or three million, these hackers are criminals. You need to be so careful.”