Meta announced the layoff of more than 25 of its employees and contractor from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger for “kidnapping” and unlocking user accounts to allegedly bribe.
According to the medium The Wall Street Journal, These employees made use of a system from which users who have forgotten their passwords can be helped or have lost access to their accounts due to hackers.
Supposedly this procedure is limited to special cases such as friends or relatives of the worker, business partners and public figures.
(See also: Paid vacations and more: benefits that Zuckerberg will give to the 11,000 fired from Facebook)
Nevertheless, its use increased markedly as the number of personnel increased. in 2020that mechanism responded to some 50,270 requests, while three years ago they only received 22,000, according to an internal document reviewed by the newspaper.
Some of those fired were contractors who They worked as security guards at the Meta facilities who were given access to the internal mechanism of the Facebook matrix.
“People selling fraudulent services (such as locked account recovery) always target online platforms, including ours, and adapt their tactics in response to detection methods commonly used in the industry,” the statement said. Meta spokesman Andy Stone.
This type of internal problems highlights others that Meta has, such as providing support to its more than 3 billion users on its platforms, since the company does not have a direct customer service line.
When users can’t access their accounts, they often try automated methods to reset them or try to contact a Meta worker by phone or email.