Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson issued the alert after area residents reported interacting with a Facebook post earlier this week. The post advertised numerous vehicles, including trailers, Taylor Swift tickets and other large ticket items for sale, and was shared several dozen times before it was taken down.

“In this case, someone hacked the Facebook account of a civic leader. After gaining control of the Facebook account, the hacker listed several items for sale,” said County Attorney Todd Thompson. “This wasn’t a cloned account but a hack; that’s an important distinction.”

A cloned social media account is a fake account created to impersonate (clone) the victim. In a hacked account scenario, the attacker gains control over the victim’s real account and then has built-in access to the victim’s friends list, messenger account, and contacts. “The victim may not know their account has been compromised until a friend notifies them and after the damage has been done,” said Thompson.

When someone hacks an account, they almost immediately change the email address and phone number associated with the account. These changes can prevent the rightful owner from reclaiming their account. After gaining control, the hacker can post items for sale, often with a story about why a loved one needs to sell their items. In most cases, the hacker’s posts will not allow people to comment, as the comments would allow others to be notified there is a scam. The hacker will only allow people to “like” or share the post to other feeds. If you review the rest of the hacked profile, it will look normal, except for the post with the items allegedly being sold.

One resident who was nearly victimized after a friend shared the original post and vouched for the account holder’s trustworthiness notified our office about the recent scam. This resident reported that they sent the hacked account a message about purchasing one of the vehicles. The hacker responded, warning the resident that the vehicle was a popular item. The hacker claimed to be out of town but offered to accept a refundable deposit to hold the vehicle for the resident.

The Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office urges caution when purchasing items online. If a situation seems too good to be true, it probably is.

“Research and do your best to verify the authenticity of the person you’re dealing with before turning over money. We’re thankful that, at this point, we are unaware of anyone giving the hacker money,” Thompson said in a release. “In this case, we were notified that the resident asked for evidence proving he wasn’t being scammed. When asked for a picture with the current date, the hacker sent a video of the person they hacked.

“The video was taken from the hacked account and posted previously by the rightful account holder. These hackers will go to great lengths to receive money or valuable information.”