'A nightmare': Ontario man said he was hacked and locked out of Facebook

An Ontario man said a conversation he had over Facebook messenger turned into a nightmare after he was hacked and locked out of his account.

“My cell phone began to blow up on me. It was my friends saying you have been hacked and messages were going out to all my contacts," said Eric Dugan of Scarborough.

Dugan said he checks in on his Facebook account every day and in March he got a strange message from someone who appeared to be a friend.

"I was contacted by somebody who I thought was a contact of mine and they said they were locked out of Facebook and they needed five people to verify who they were," said Dugan.

Dugan decided to help the person out and was told he would be sent a code on messenger and he had to send it back.

However, once he sent the message back he was locked out of his Facebook account and his friends started getting messages about investment scams.

"Within a minute my account started changing and they changed my email and my phone number and I was locked out of my account," said Dugan.

Cyber security experts say there are currently many scams on Facebook you have to watch out for.

"The way people are able to pose as other people and steal photos is at an all time high. There are about 15 different scams taking place on Facebook right now,” said Mohit Rajhans, Media Consultant with Think Start Inc.

According to Facebook, to protect yourself from being hacked use strong passwords, two factor authentication, backup your photos and documents, don't stay logged in and be suspicious of links and third party apps.

Because Facebook and other social media companies don't charge users for their services, Rajhans said it's often difficult to get help when there is a problem.

"They are going to come back to you and say well if you exchange information with someone online, that is something that you have willingly done and unfortunately they are not the ones to blame,” said Rajhans.

CTV News Toronto reached out to Facebook on Dugan’s behalf and they were able to help him restore his accounts, contacts and retrieve his photos.

"I’m very happy it’s finally over. It was turning into a nightmare,” said Dugan.

It’s not just on Facebook, Rajhans advises that you have to be careful on Instagram, Twitter and other social media websites, use antivirus software and ignore suspicious links and ads.