My Facebook was hacked. Instagram and WhatsApp, too. How did this happen?

Wendy Spinner joined Facebook in 2009 to stay in touch with family, friends and co-workers.She got that. But she also got an invasion of privacy that she calls a nightmare.In January, Spinner’s Facebook contacts said they received messages from someone who was impersonating Spinner.The person asked them to send money, she said.Spinner said she knew she had been hacked.“I reported the impersonation and hacking of my account to the Facebook Help Center,” Spinner said. “Facebook instructed me to change my password and email address which are connected to my Facebook account.”But two minutes after she made those changes, the hacker somehow gained access, changing her password and email address to their own.This happened again and again and went on for weeks, Spinner said. Despite multiple efforts to get help from Facebook, the social media giant didn’t intervene, she said.Then the hacker got into her Instagram account — Instagram is owned by Facebook — changing the account name and switching her profile photo.In the weeks that followed, Spinner said she received multiple security alerts from Facebook saying someone was trying to change the information for the account, but efforts to get help went unanswered.She asked her cell phone carrier for help.…
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