CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There's a warning from CMPD Animal Care and Control this week: its original Facebook page has been hacked.
The agency says the hack happened in October. It tried to regain access to the page for months, unsuccessfully. Eventually, it created a new page, called "Animal Care & Control."
However, the old compromised page remains up and, after sitting dormant for months, whoever controls the page now is starting to post again.
Some of the posts are animal-related photos with captions, while others are created to look like photo posts but are actually hidden links that can trick a user trying to look at the full picture or photo gallery into tapping them.
Some posts are getting lots of likes, shares and comments from followers of the page who seemingly did not know someone who is not with the shelter is now running the page.
CMPD Animal Care and Control posted on its new Facebook page Monday, suggesting people report and unfollow the old site and follow its new page for real updates from the shelter.
Experts say the best way to guard your account from hackers is to use two-factor authentication. If someone tries to access your account from an unfamiliar device with a stolen password, Facebook will implement a second step to log in, having the user verify their identity via text message or app.
Contact Vanessa Ruffes at vruffes@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.