Facebook Scam Leaves Cleveland County Woman Hacked

By Dave Jordan, NEWS 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- Facebook hackers strike again and this time, it hits home. The account belongs to a Cleveland County woman. She only learned her account was compromised when friends started calling her after the scammer hit them up for money.

When Mary Beth Henschel, was hitting her friends up on Facebook asking for money, they wanted to help. Only it wasn't her. Someone hacked into her account.

The instant messages were alarming to Henschel's friends that she may be stranded in London, having been robbed at gunpoint and needed some cash to get back home. But it was all a lie.

"I was at the student union having lunch and one of my former colleagues called me frantically," Henschel said.

That's when Henschel found out that her account had been hacked. One of her classmates at OU was among the many friends the hacker hit up for money.

"She was still on her laptop when I walked into class and she said, 'Mary Beth come over here' and I said 'You, too' and she said 'Oh, yeah look at all of this,'" Henschel said.

Jason Doyle also spoke with the hacker online, although he knew early on something wasn't right.

"If Mary Beth was going through any kind of trauma, if her leg was about to be amputated, she would still crack a joke and even though the situation was serious, this person wasn't cracking the jokes back," Doyle said.

Doyle stalled the hacker and saved the entire chat.

"We got this figured out that mutual friends started calling each other and we got this figured out that this was not the real Mary Beth and we were going to let Mary Beth know that someone had broken into her Facebook account," Doyle said.

This is not uncommon according to Oklahoma City University computer tech Thomas Shaak. He says the best way to avoid this is to change your password frequently and don't make it too obvious.

"Make sure it's something that's not easily guessed, like birthdays, names of pets, friends, family," Shaak said.

As for Henschel, Facebook suspended her account.

"I felt so violated, I really did, Dave, extremely violated from all of this," Henschel said.

Henschel's account has not been reactivated. Facebook administrators are working to restore her account.