The insane story of how I got

[@pillemcphilsen8529]

Menno is my favourite science based funny cat video uploader.

[@tayloroxelgren264]

Turns out the hacker was the hero you needed, they just wanted you to get past 100k followers

[@hunter_69_69]

Paul Carter: Only the last 5 characters in a password are effective characters

[@The_Legend715]

Made my day ty

[@manino94]

LMAOOO

[@ThomasAT86]

Holy crap that is insane. I was so confused what happened with your page, only got to know what happened after someone posted it in a comment below some of those viral posts. Put your channel on snooze, happy to have you back. And yeah, it's f*ed up that people work their ass off, provide quality, science based, fantastic content, and gain just a fraction of followers or make just a fraction of the money than someone that scamms, spreads bullshit, just posts viral stuff,...

[@sethdbrown30]

As a law enforcement officer, META is hell to deal with. I've had many issues with META dealing with LE investigations.

[@DILFDylF]

Cops go to social media for evidence in almost any investigation.

[@tinybarabo]

Geez what a story 😨 I guess you can post every now and then a few corgi butts to grow further, even though it makes me feel sad …

[@andie8506]

I watched/listened to this while doing sprints. When you got to the end and said, "Now, do you want to hear the really funny part," I nearly fell off my elliptical because I was laughing so hard. I'm so sorry that happened to you. And Kudos to you and your team who kept pushing for resolution.

[@grecufilip]

This is honestly the funniest thing Ive ever heard

[@Viertelfranzose]

Unbelievable Story...this Video must go to News Nation TV

[@Martijnhoffmans]

Well not fully true, Meta offers their services for free to the general public, meaning you are the product. They use your data and sell it…

[@kozmo7]

Yep

[@tonikukoc1451]

They don't sell your data. They sell showcase spaces on the website that are served to the users based on the segmentation created out of collected user data.

[@s.wilson5675]

You surrender your soul to them by accepting to use their platform.

[@manfIesh]

miscommunication in IT is egregious, just get a paranoid fuck like me to read emails. funny about the cat videos tho lmao

[@Magical-2011]

Hope you do livestreams ❤❤❤

[@kamo7293]

it's been quite some time, but Jim browning, the scammer take downer also got hit with something similar. how did Facebook allow this easy to use hack exploit to go by when there have most likely been many people hit with this

[@Lakoda26]

As someone who works in this space, I am not surprised by your experience. The quality of customer service was not likely related to a desire to be unhelpful but out of incompetency at a corporate level. A lot of this was born out of a need to protect themselves of non-premium users not knowing what they are doing or saying trying to get unreasonable resolutions. Its a tragedy of the commons problem.

[@majinzanza]

Geeezz!! That's so crazy that META took so long to resolve it, and that you had to jump through so many hoops.. that's pretty ridiculous. On the other hand, grats on 175k followers on Facebook? 😂

[@menno.henselmans]

Heh, they're mostly useless followers, unfortunately.

[@MeleDrummer]

Please keep the cute cat videos coming Menno 🤣🤣🤣

[@shantanusapru]

I can think of 2 scenarios for the "Why":- 1) This was just a trial run/training wheels for some up-and-coming, wannabe, newbie 'hackers' (more like social engineers), or 2) They left some sleeper malware/backdoor in your FB page and might use it at a later date to wreak some havoc (which means we're dealing with some serious pros)... Or, a bit of both, learn-on-the-go and create chaos or route some malware/ransomware via zombie accounts (your account was turned into one...)... Anyway, that's me simply spitballing...

[@Mudkipz123]

or it was just to get a base of followers to then get a lot of them to eventually sell it for advertising

[@shantanusapru]

@@Mudkipz123 "to get a base of followers" --- On whose end/part? Menno's, or the hackers'? If the hackers', then why?? That's not even a good, viable strategy..and there are easier ways to do that...(botnets etc). If Menno, then, well.................

[@pieflies]

Another possibility is that they own the channels with the viral videos so it’s a way to drive traffic to their own videos for ad revenue. In a lot of cases people never get their hacked accounts back so if they did a lot of these they could potentially get a decent amount of traffic to their videos. Or that they start out posting benign things and gain some trust with the followers and then come with the scams or malware later on, if they retain the account long enough.

[@shantanusapru]

@@pieflies Nice! Quite possible...

[@wvvwwwvvw]

Funny enough, I didnt unsubscribe during the hacked period, even though I saw the IG announcement. And I must admit that.... I kinda sometimes even enjoyed the viral vids they posted in there :D. So food for thought: mb to start a funny Friday event or monthly last Friday, where you post only.. well.. funny cat vids :D like 5-10vids per day, lol.

[@irfuel]

I presume what happened is you told them what email you were going to use, and they sent you a mail with their own link?

[@menno.henselmans]

Yep, one that looked identical to one from FB at the exact time I submitted it, and I didn't get an email from FB itself after that.

[@Dys-Mugetsu]

I'm glad that you got your account in the end this was a wild story 😂, I think that social media platforms are not free and they should provide better support even for non paying users, I would say that you pay with your privacy and information instead of paying money which in the end translates to them making money

[@sunwukong6268]

😂I am so sorry for all the trouble you had. But boy, I can’t stop laughing. But in the end…you got many new subscribers 😅👍

[@FitOneswithVarun]

The last part is crazy, viral videos > everything

[@jaijaiwanted]

Was this a net benefit then?

[@hotmarry4584]

It is NOT true, we watch all the advertisements if there wouldn’t be free user to who you will show your add’s😂

[@SASlair]

So will you start posting cat videos here and there now to boost your subscriber number?

[@Rave.-]

Fb viral Menno was a fun time, I'll give your alter ego that. Your comments section was either confused, bemused, or enraged... some all at the same time. Quite the show.

[@JesusGarcia-Digem]

Menno, what are your thoughts on High intensity training. Mike Mentzer or Dorian Yates style of training is really popular. I myself use these HIT principles to train. The pump is insane and the natty gains are superb. How a about a future video on HIT?!

[@Bathrezz1]

shutup, everyones already talking about that crap.

[@JesusGarcia-Digem]

@@Bathrezz1 Put the trenbolone 🥪 sandwich down and stay natty.

[@gfitfitnessstudio]

Seems it’s time for Meta has to hire some hackers. 🤦🏻‍♀️

[@abeandmel]

META is known for horrible customer service (if you even get any). I manage a page with over 600k followers and they are not any better. Whatever ai system they use to review/evaluate content is horribly programmed. Basically you are either screwed or in for a loooooong road if anything does happen.

[@warrenhenning8064]

As a software engineer, I'm a little unclear on how the account takeover actually occurred. Was the email you received actually from Facebook or was it fabricated by the attacker? I don't understand the point at which they actually obtained account access.

[@menno.henselmans]

I also don't understand it. The email was fabricated, I guess, but it looked exactly like one from FB and I didn't get an additional one from FB itself, as you'd expect if they faked the first one.

[@BigBADSTUFF69]

Someone successfully stole my personal facebook account without access to my email even. They were able to change the email and phone number to their own without any confirmation from me. There are likely flaws in facebook security that allow this, I even wonder if maybe there are facebook employees or contractors that facilitate it.

[@SSjago]

I liked how you shared daily weird videos of asians building shit and catching fish while saying it emotionally moved you.

[@SuperMeiMei]

hackers deserve a thank you note~ LOL~ META IS THE WORSE ~

[@Jhumanghjngg]

I assume when the hackers asked you to create a new account, they sent you a confirmation email from their side and you entered a password they could then see. Why they hacked you without messing with stuff too much? To make you pay for getting the account back. Didn't you even describe that yourself? Anyways, just re-follwed on fb. Please keep posting a cat once in a while :)

[@menno.henselmans]

No, I never entered a password.

[@velo1337]

thx for explaining. will be fixed

[@Lakoda26]

I have to completely disagree about "getting a gift". You are bartering your information and attention which companies like Google and Meta turn around and sell. Taking a one sided position here, completely misses the nuance. You, as a user, should be entitled to something. I get your point, and I feel I'm getting that, so I don't expect more. I think you are railing against those who expect customer service like they are paying hundreds of dollars a month for. Anything in the digital space is by definition ephemeral. All those movies you "bought" to stream. All gone at the companies whim - protect yourself accordingly.

[@marilynfarmer1302]

Oh. My. Word. I’m not sure what the takeaway is. 🤯

[@otherworlder]

if Geniuses like Menno can easily be scammed, what about mere mortals like us?

[@JustWantedToGrill]

The competency crisis is very real. At least this didn't involve parts falling off of airplanes 😬

[@Slim934]

Perhaps if you did livestreams as a catboy vtuber you could get the channel up to 1 million before 2025.

[@DivineFrag]

Guess you should've started posting those cat memes quicker...

[@user-ii7xc1ry3x]

Wild.

[@Dggb2345]

Sounds like Twitter before Musk.

[@azulsimmons1040]

Wow. This is insane. I do dislike META. They run their product like such garbage and so much of their content is terrible. KZbin seems much more professionally run.

[@peterfarr9591]

Take away is that you need to change out all of your fitness models for cats

[@leanderschreyer5957]

Ik mis de kat video's 😅

[@jamesbarber6375]

Hah bizarre!

[@SSjago]

But the thing with the followers is partly this: you're a bit of a brainiac. This seeps through your whole business and content. Even the color schemes are scientific and rational. You appeal to people who like to think. While not unheard of that does seem to be a minority. Disciplined structured thinking and research are not for general population. You likely wil only appeal to larger crowds by acting a little "stupider".

[@liesbethg9023]

I get what you mean, this evidence based stuff isnt for everyone. But I do agree the info could be presented a little funnier, not stupidier, to attract more ppl, without going the crazy clickbait way. I'm a researcher myself and scientific communication is a thing. A cat video here and there might help 🤣

[@irfuel]

The clickbaity "NEVER DO THIS!" or "I VE BEEN TRAINING BICEPS WRONG FOR YEARS!!!!" or "BIGGER ARMS IN 30 DAYS! [NO CLICKBAIT]"

[@DenaturedProtein]

Greek god gigachad got hacked. BAD stuff.

[@dreitill]

Im here for the cat videos 🤣