All proceeds from the FurFest will benefit the SPCA of East Texas in Tyler. (Jennifer Scott/Tyler Morning Telegraph File)

The SPCA of East Texas was forced to create a new Facebook page after their page was hacked.

Officials at the SPCA said on Monday that they were unable to regain control of their Facebook page after hackers took over in mid-June. The SPCA immediately filled out an incident report on June 22 with Meta, the multinational technology conglomerate that owns Facebook, but were unsuccessful in regaining control of the page.

On Monday, the local nonprofit created a new page. Search it on Facebook at “SPCA East Texas,” or visit this link https://tinyurl.com/spcaeasttexasfb.

The group hopes the community will visit their page and give them a like and follow as they rebuild their social media following.

The local SPCA said it is one of several known animal rescues who had their Facebook pages hacked by cybercriminals and “used to solicit money from unsuspecting animal lovers and potential adopters.”

“We heavily rely on our social media accounts to build an animal-loving community with our 35,000 followers, stay connected with our supporters, fundraise, and, most importantly, help animals in our program find their forever families,” said Amy Turman, chair of the board for the SPCA ETX. “These scammers have hijacked our page, removed our access, and limited our life-saving mission.”

The SPCA ETX is a 10-year-old foster-based nonprofit animal rescue whose mission is to improve the lives of animals, alleviate their suffering, and elevate their status in society.

The cybercriminals began by submitting a seemingly legitimate link to the SPCA ETX Facebook platform that appeared to be sent from a well-known pet adoption website that lists more than 315,000 adoptable pets annually from nearly 14,000 animal shelters. When SPCA ETX staff clicked the link, the hackers were able to gain access to the organization’s Facebook account, change the password, and remove all administrators.

Once they gained full control, the scammers began posting pictures of highly desirable breeds for adoption, such as pure-bred French Bulldog and Yorkshire Terrier puppies that are typically sold for more than $2,000.

“These animals are not in their possession, and they do not intend to actually sell animals,” Turman said. “These cybercriminals have created Google forms for potential adopters to fill out and submit. Once received, the hackers instruct applicants how and where to send their ‘refundable’ deposits. They will collect money from Zelle, Chime, or Venmo.”

Several SPCA ETX supporters have reported the scammers’ fraudulent posts to Meta, but according to the nonprofit, “the tech giant refuses to remove the content.” SPCA ETX supporters who inquired received a response that reads, “We use a combination of technology and human reviewers to process reports and identify content that goes against our Community Standards. In this case, we did not remove the content you reported.”

“We want to share this unfortunate experience with our community to prevent potential adopters from submitting an application and sending money to these cybercriminals,” Turman said. “To add insult to injury, this hack occurs at a time when majority of local shelters are at capacity through the summer months. It is our hope that this cautionary tale serves as the impetus for local rescues to amp up their Facebook security, change all passwords, and consider two-step authentication and log-in alerts. We are all working toward the same mission. We are all at capacity. And like so many nonprofit organizations, we all rely on our social media platforms to fundraise and fulfill our missions.”

If you would like more information on how to adopt a pet from the SPCA ETX, please visit spcaeasttx.com or contact the SPCA ETX Adoption Center Tuesday-Saturday at 903-596-7722.