On Thursday 26 May hackers got into the Facebook page of Animal Anti-Cruelty League (AACL) Cape Town, allegedly to try and steal from their funds.
Madelein Myburgh, the general manager of AACL Cape Town, said they were shocked that their social media pages (Facebook) were hacked on Thursday 26 May.
“How can one steal from an animal like Enzo and so many more?”
Myburgh says the hacking of social media accounts is a huge challenge, but this is the first time she’s aware of that hackers try to steal from a non-profit organisation and specifically animals.
She says AACL Cape Town is running a birthday raffle to celebrate the organisation’s 53rd birthday. The much-needed funds generated, support them in their prime objective: “to promote kindness and prevent or suppress cruelty to animals”.
Early on Thursday morning the marketing department identified irregularities on their social media pages. They immediately investigated and found that hackers were trying to hack their birthday raffle to try and steal the funds.
She says the hackers could not change the banking details as the ticket sales are via a recognised ticket sales platform. The hackers, according to Myburgh also removed a large number of posts and photos of animals ready to be adopted.
The organisation’s IT team immediately identified the problem and secured their pages. “However, on Monday (30 May) we received spam email to reset our Facebook page, which we ignored. This can be an indication that they are still try to hack us. We are very vigilant,” she says.
According to Myburgh they have restored about 45% of their content.
“Unfortunately, this will take a long time to fully restore, which has a direct impact on our business and the animals up for adoption.
“Our IT cannot identify where they got in, but all security measures have been followed to secure our pages,” Myburgh said.
AACL CT strongly advises if the public receive any images or messages not to release payment or donate unless it is via the AACL bank account.
- Visit https://www.aacl.co.za/ for more information on the AACL Cape Town.
