A TRAVELLER influencer has revealed she “had a breakdown” when she became the victim of a hostage attack.
Trewley Precious has become a favourite on social media, with a staggering 54.7 million likes on TikTok, and often leaves fans in hysterics with her hilarious stories and traveller tales.
However, things took a serious turn recently when Trewley found herself targeted by conmen, who hacked her TikTok account and demanded £3,000 to give it back.
Trewley opened up about the shocking situation on GK Barry’s Saving Grace podcast, as she said: “Me and my manager were talking about getting verified (on TikTok).
“So I was like, oh, exciting. Love this. Big steps.
“It’s really like an exciting thing for me.”
Then, two days later, an email came through to Trewley which claimed to be from “TikTok Support”, with a blue tick next to it – the symbol used for verified accounts on the site.
The email said that Trewley’s verification was ready, and to sign in to activate it.
“So obviously I signed in thinking it was the verification,” she sighed.
“And then they’ve texted me like the screen recording that they’re on my account.
“And then they were like, ‘Give us £3k’.”
Trewley had some choice words as she insisted “no-one’s doing that”, before ringing her manager while she was “fuming, livid, crying and having a breakdown”.
She then used the podcast interview to issue a public apology to her manager for how she spoke to her, as she said: “I’ve rung her, going mental, the council estate kid in me has come out…
“You name it, I said it.”
“I’m really glad you got it back because I feel like that is very stressful,” GK replied.
“I know people probably the comments were like first world problems, like blah, blah, blah.
“But actually if it’s your job, like what you meant to do?”
“No-one understood this,” Trewley replied. “I was trying to say, imagine you go into your work, and it’s not there.
How to stay safe from hackers
- Protect your devices and networks by keeping them up to date: use the latest supported versions, use anti-virus and scan regularly to guard against known malware threats.
- Use multi-factor authentication to reduce the impact of password compromises.
- Tell staff how to report suspected phishing emails, and ensure they feel confident to do so, investigate their reports promptly and thoroughly.
- Set up a security monitoring capability so you are collecting the data that will be needed to analyse network intrusions
- Prevent and detect lateral movement in your organisation’s networks.
“It’s literally not there.
“And they go, ‘You can’t come in unless you pay £3,000’.”
Trewley went on to explain that her friend who works “high up in TikTok shop” then helped her get her account back, as she said she was “so desperate” that she even offered to pay him the £3,000 if he helped her.
However, she insisted he “wouldn’t take a penny”, getting her access to the account out of the goodness of his heart.
Luckily, all the hackers had done while in Trewley’s account was to change her name to “Pasha”.
Trewley concluded by advising anyone else who had been hacked should have a backup account on the site, just in case.
