Falmouth dog care business suffers 'traumatic and upsetting' hacker attack
The owner of Happy Pups has 'lost everything' after hackers took over her Facebook account and wiped out her bank account
The owner of a Cornish dog walking business is urging people to be extra vigilant online after her bank account was completely wiped out because of hackers.
Sarah Walters, who owns Happy Pups just outside of Falmouth, has lost 13 years of content and contacts on her Facebook page following the incident.
She's called the whole experience the experience 'traumatic and upsetting' as Sarah now looks to rebuild more than a decade of work.
Speaking to us, Sarah added: "Thirteen years of building up a work page went all to pot in the space of just 18 hours - I had absolutely no idea how quickly something like this could progress.
"Aside from my paper diary which has all my bookings in, I've lost pretty much all of my contacts, as I ran these through my Facebook page."
Something started to arise when Sarah experienced a problem with her Instagram account.
She said: "There were some really odd things going on - starting with my Instagram account. I tried to sign in, it wouldn't let me, and I didn't think much of it, but then about an hour later, the same thing happened with my Facebook account.
"That's not really an unusual thing to happen, which is why I didn't think there was anything suspicious going on at the time.
"I tried to log back in, but I couldn't."
Sarah then tried to reset her password, and after a number of hours, it then became clear that she'd been hacked - and shut out by a hacker.
She added: "I then phoned the bank, who advised me to delete the app, which I did, but I woke up in the morning, and as I slept in the middle of the night, they went in to my PayPal and completely wiped my bank account - that was the worst bit of it.
"I then found out my work page had also been deleted - so all of it means 13 years of building a work page has just been completely destroyed."
Sarah told us she believes the attack was a random one, and is now trying to rebuild more than a decade of what has been lost.
She said: "The most important thing I want to do is make people aware of what happened, because it wasn't suspicious to me at all, what was going on, at first. It wasn't an odd thing - it was something really normal.
"As I speak to you now, creating a new social media presence for my business is pretty depressing. 13 years of building a good platform has just been destroyed.
"Not only that, but all of the amazing photos that have been taken of people's dogs - some of which aren't with us any more - are all gone, and those photos are really special to their owners, and special to me.
"It makes you feel really vulnerable."
After the incident, Sarah decided to post about her experience on Facebook - she has thanked everyone who has reached out to her, offering their support.
"The network of people on Facebook have been incredibly supportive. Even people I don't know have been reaching out to me, which I'm incredibly grateful for.
"Everyone - just be aware, because there were no tell-tale signs at all."
Anyone trying to contact Sarah can get call Sarah on her Happy Pups mobile number - 07377679909.