'I feel robbed': Victoria salon falls victim to Instagram hack

The Natural Hair Salon in Victoria. (CTV News)

A Victoria hair salon is raising awareness after its Instagram account was hacked, reportedly duping a client out of $2,000.

The Natural Hair Salon says it’s spent four years building its social media presence, so when it received an email offering the company a "verified" account, it seemed like a good sign.

But co-owner Natalie Grunberg-Ferreira says it was a phony offer. As soon as she clicked the link and followed the prompts, a hacker took control of the account and she hasn’t been able to access it since.

“I feel robbed,” says Grunberg-Ferreira. “I feel frustrated, because there’s so many barriers and challenges to small business that this just ended up being an extra one that I really didn’t need.”

She says she also heard from a client who claimed to have lost $2,000 on one of the fraudulent posts soliciting investments.

Other stylists at the salon have had their Instagram accounts mysteriously targeted too.

“I don’t see what I possibly could have done to have had it disabled,” says stylist Lauren Hawley. “It’s pretty frustrating.”

A Langford-based internet safety group says you don’t have to be an influencer to be targeted.

“I wish this was a rare case,” says The White Hatter instructor Brandon Laur. “You can never prevent someone from trying to scam you and manipulate you, but what you can do is build up barriers to make it much more difficult to achieve their end goal.”

His main tip for people creating and using accounts online is to set up two-factor authentication so it makes it harder for hackers to get in. It typically sends a unique code to your phone.

“If they don’t have your phone, they’re not going to get that code and, therefore, even though they know your password, they’re not going to be able to log in,” says Laur.

The Natural Hair Salon says it plans to report the scam to police. Victoria police have not responded to a request for comment on the story.

A spokesperson for Instagram says the company is investigating the hacked accounts.