Schaumburg spa owner disturbed over what hackers post on her business Facebook page
CHICAGO (CBS) – A suburban spa owner has been trying to repair her online image after pornographic videos were posted to her social media page.
CBS 2's Lauren Victory detailed her fight with Facebook.
While Noelle Fredrick frequently has to straighten up her spa workspace, but what she can't seem to tidy up is her spa's Facebook page.
"Here's the title: 'The affair with the maid,'" Fredrick said. "There's just so much."
There's video after video of suggestive content that CBS 2 cannot show on television. But this reaction may speak for itself.
Victory: "Ugh!"
Fredrick: "Right?"
That was Victory's reaction after Fredrick described just one of the sexual scenarios.
"Disturbing videos," Fredrick said. "Like, disturbing."
What's also disturbing is the profile picture. It shows her face and name. It was her business account for Beauty From Within Spa in Schaumburg.
Well, it was her account until Valentine's Day when hackers took over.
"When I was in control and possession of my page, I had 145 followers," Fredrick said.
But how many does she have now?
"44,000!" she said, for all the wrong reasons.
Invoices show the racy reels were making money off of advertisements. Thousands of dollars were paid by Facebook's parent company Meta based on the number of views. Fredrick said the cash went to the hackers and that Meta only stopped payments after she reported her account was compromised.
"When it came to the financial aspect of things, Facebook immediately took care of that," she said.
But the videos kept coming. It's been six months of crude posts instead of promotions for her facials and waxing services.
The business owner fears the reaction from people who Google "Beauty From Within Spa" because the hacked Facebook page shows up as one of the top results.
"Like, ew! I don't want to go to a spa that does that," Fredrick said. "It's illegal."
Sergeant Fredrick thought she left illegal things behind in her previous career at the Cook County Jail. Part of her passion is helping first responders destress.
"I didn't come from that and dealing with criminals to now owing a business and now I'm dealing with criminals in a different way," she said. "It's frustrating."
Fredrick repeatedly reported the problem to Meta. CBS 2 has also raised concerns to the company several times.
Meta still hasn't helped Fredrick and hasn't responded to CBS 2's. An independent oversight board that makes content decision for the social media giant did respond saying it did not deal with access issues, but a spokesperson said members have pressed Meta to improve its customer service.
CBS 2 researched some ways to protect your account from hackers. Facebook has a help page with suggestions on what to do if you are hacked. The tech site Tom's Guide has a post on "What to do if your Facebook account is hacked."
