Kansas City realtor hacked on Facebook, warns others after scam cost friends thousands
By Brya Berry
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KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KMBC) — You probably use social media to stay connected, but hackers use it to connect to your personal information.
That’s what happened to a local realtor who got caught in a major Facebook scam. He called KMBC 9’s Brya Berry to help keep others safe.
“I’m in the business of making people happy. I’m so blessed to get to do what I do, because I get to make people happy every day,” said Brent Sledd.
Sledd sells an average of seven houses across Kansas City every month. Some of his success comes from using Facebook as a marketing tool.
“It actually makes my phone ring,” said Sledd. “People see that. It’s like, oh, yeah. Yeah, this guy is a realtor.”
But things took a turn when Sledd received an unusual email, allegedly from Facebook, asking if he had tried to log in from Paris.
Trusting Facebook’s familiar interface, he proceeded to verify the code using a two-step authenticator that texted his cellphone with seven digits.
Two more login attempts were allegedly from Uruguay and New York. Each time, emails asked him to verify a code using a two-step authenticator.
“I’ve had no explanation of how this happened,” said Sledd. “I racked my brain trying to think that I, you know, respond to a text with a code or something like that. I don’t know what to trust. Did this email really come from Facebook, or did it come from the hacker?”
It likely came from hackers who accessed his account and locked him out.
His 3,600 Facebook friends were gone, along with photos of his son, who passed away 15 years ago.
“I lost sleep over this. It was crushing to think about,” said Sledd, his voice filled with emotional distress. “I’ve got this network of people, you know, it’ll take me forever to try to rebuild.”
The hackers even started posting as Sledd, claiming his uncle was moving to an assisted living facility and needed to sell his belongings.
Two of his friends sent $5,000 as a down payment through Venmo.
“I can’t stand losing my Facebook account, but for my friends to get scammed like this hurts a lot more than anything that ever happened to me,” said Sledd.
Sledd has a verified Facebook account, but somehow, the hackers were still able to gain control.
He told KMBC 9 that Facebook has not been helpful in resolving the issue.
Our team contacted Tenfold Security, a cybersecurity company, to help recover his page.
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