Hackers have turned a Frome bakery business dark and have been demanding money to 'give back' the account after the owner fell prey to a scam.

Alice Jane has been running a successful cupcake business, Petals Bakehouse, from home in Frome for several years, and after years of hard work, it has recently taken off.

Her stunning bakes have led to thousands of fans, and she has been using social media as her sales platform.

Through Instagram and (the owner of Instagram) Facebook she amassed a following of nearly 70,000 through sheer talent and graft. But now she is worried that she will lose valuable custom and reputation, all through a simple tick and inadvertently because of that success.

To those not in the know, you can apply for a special tick ( a blue tick) on the Instagram account which is recognition from Instagram for being a verified public figure orbrand.

How Petals Bakehouse has been trapped

On Friday she received a message from Instagram saying that she had been verified and was obviously chuffed to bits ; unaware that this was a scam. Unwittingly she clicked the link, since it appeared official, but it was a hack and her account was taken over and she was held hostage.

Her partner explained: " She has been unable to access her account ever since. This seems to be a scam that targets the business accounts with a high following that seek verification. Other accounts have recently been hacked notably a company that Alice is an ambassador for which happened on the same day. "

In spite of security measures such as two factor authentication, the hackers have been able to block her out and she cannot get a code to get back in.

To make matters worse the hacker has obtained her number through the account and has been sending abusive messages and demanding money every time she tries a new log in.

Demanding money with menaces

The hacker, believed to be operating from outside Europe, is now demanding hundreds of dollars for the release of her account.

In essence she is being held to ransom, and with no help from Instagram/Facebook/Meta she has reported the matter to the police, although she is not hopeful that much can be done.

But the worst part is getting in touch with customers

As Petals told us - the worst part is that she has orders and payment for future work and has absolutely no way of contacting the customers as all the relevant information is in her Instagram messages.

Alice has created a new page - Petals.Bakehouse - and hopes that they can search for her account again and re follow her or get in touch through her Facebook page. She also has to rely on other bakers within the industry, getting the word out that she has been hacked and also sharing her new account.

If you have been the target of on line fraud or hacking you can report the crime to the police who deal with fraud cases. Details HERE