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security

My Facebook Nightmare

by April Carvelli June 16, 2021

written by April Carvelli

On June 10^th, 2021 at 4 A.M. my Facebook nightmare began.

Most days I get up around 4 A.M. to work on PopCultHQ.com before I head to my full-time job. This entails responding to emails, looking at potential advertising, checking stats, updating the convention list, combing through event news and if there is time writing an article or two.

First thing I do is I start going through emails. I noted that at 3:12am I had a notice from Facebook that someone had logged into my account, by 3:18 they had changed the phone number on my account and initiated two-factor authentication. They had also logged out all other devices, so now I couldn’t log in through anything.

I freaked, this was the main account for my business. PopCultHQ.com was compromised. I instantly attempted to log in and it wouldn’t let me, but it did let me change the password.

When I tried to change the password I noticed that there were now two emails listed for my account. The one I used and a second one that wasn’t mine. So every time I tried to reset the password the hacker also got notification. I changed the password in an attempt to limit their access, even if only briefly.

I reported the account and contacted everyone I could and told them to report the account.

Facebook Security Is a Myth

Supposedly when you report an account, Facebook locks it down until it can be confirmed, so I was only mildly concerned. I thought that I would contact Facebook, send over my ID and get this resolved rather quickly. I was wrong.

Account on Lockdown

First off, when Facebook locks down or blocks an account, everything and I do mean EVERYTHING associated with that account is gone. Every picture I ever took and tagged people in is gone. The Facebook pages I created are gone. Every file I ever created in Facebook is completely gone. For over three years I have been creating a monthly report of how PopCultHQ is doing and sharing that with my writers, EVERY single one of those reports is gone. Years of compiling data is gone in a heartbeat. I had always assumed that file that was shared with others would remain until deleted. Facebook just proved that assume just makes and Ass out of U and ME.

The good news was that everything was locked down, and I got it locked down before the hackers could do any harm. Boy was I wrong.

Still Billing Me

Because I am attempting to run a business that means we need social media, we used Facebook as our main social media and it was/is a big source of our traffic. To improve traffic, I would periodically run ad campaigns through Facebook, which meant that I would receive billing for those ads.

On June 12^th, two days after I thought I had locked down the Facebook account, I was received billing from Facebook for advertising. It was two bills for $50 each. One was at 10:11 OM CST and the other at 11:49 PM EST. If the account was locked down, how did the hackers manage to bill $100 of advertising?

Facebook Response

As for getting access to my account back? I haven’t found a way to do it yet.

I have sent my identification in to Facebook using every way I can find and there are not many ways to do it. 90% of the help options require you to log in to Facebook. If you do not have access to your Facebook account that makes it more than a little difficult to use their options.

There is no way to contact a human at Facebook. I have found two phone numbers, both lead to a voice system with a variety of options, each and every option sends you to the Facebook help page. To make matters worse, some of those pages the system directs you to, do not exist.

When you find a form you can submit to without having to log in, you tend to get an automatic response:

“Hi,

We can’t give you access to this account or help with your request until we receive an accepted form of ID that matches the information listed on the account. Learn more about the types of ID we accept in the Help Center:
https://www.facebook.com/help/159096464162185?ref=cr

Thanks,
The Facebook Team”

Funny thing is, I have sent in several pieces of official documentation that match the name on the hacked account. I have sent it via multiple venues and in various formats. I sent in legal documents, I even created a presentation step by step of why I cannot access my account. I included various piece of information they could use to verify the account is mine, I listed specific pictures, listed who the top chats in messenger would have been and told them to contact those people for verification, I listed what pages I have created, what pages and groups I am part of, I listed a few ‘secret’ groups that wouldn’t be common knowledge. I have provided Facebook with more than enough information to fully identify that as my page. Even without any of that information they should be suspicious if I am suddenly logging in from a completely different IP, in a new continent. Even if it is a North American hacker, I highly doubt they are logging in from my hometown with the same windows system as mine. A sudden change in location should set up red flags.

Save Everything Now

My advice to everyone. Get a hard drive just to save backups on. Save backups of every file or photo you have, make a list of the groups you are part of, keep a separate list of the Facebook people you talk to and if you have a business on Facebook or pages you don’t want to lose, make sure you have at least one other person with administrative access or there will be no access to them at all.

I was lucky, I had put my editor on most of PopCultHQ’s pages so access was not completely lost. We would have been dead in the water without him.

June 16, 2021 0 comment

Conventions

Convention Organizing 101 – The People

by April Carvelli January 10, 2019

written by April Carvelli

This is part 1 of our Conventions organizing series of articles.

There are many sides to a convention, what makes a convention truly successful is when all those sides (or at least most) walk away satisfied. As a cosplayer, a patron and sometimes a vendor these are just a few of the keypoints I have found that make for a successful convention

Unfortunately the old adage about not being able to please all of the people all of the time is true but there are a lot of things a convention runner can do to make more people happy. If more than half of people walk away from your convention happy, then you can possibly consider yourself a success.

As a convention organizer you need to realize that the people at your convention can be divided into several groups and if you offend any of these groups as a whole, then your convention will fail. However, if you keep the majority of each group happy, then you’ve got a decent chance for a successful event.

In this multi-part series we will explore what you, as an organizer, need to keep in mind for your event.

These are in no way the definitive be all and end all rules for a convention. They are only a guideline…a place to start.

Patrons

These are the attendees that are there to shop, meet a guest, view artwork, or see the cosplay. The patrons are your largest group and are the bread and butter of your convention. Without patrons you can not have a successful convention. Patrons come from all walks of life, have different abilities and different interests. Remember that this group also includes the vendors, artists, guests and cosplayers as many of them are also there to shop, people watch and see the guests.

Vendors

The vendors have paid for space and are there to sell items and (hopefully) make a profit. If you don’t treat them nicely and make things easy and affordable for them, then they probably won’t return. Vendors talk to each other, if something goes wrong then the odds are pretty good that everyone will know. If your vendors find your event convenient, easy and profitable not only will they want to return next year, they will also recommend it to other vendors.

Remember that your vendors are also your patrons, many vendors run in shifts allowing their staff time off to view the floor, so everything you provide for patrons is also for them.

Artists

The artists are obvious, and you usually have them segregated over to artists alley. Some of them are well known and have a long history, others are fairly new and trying to make a name for themselves. They are all trying to sell their artwork. Most of the artists have paid for space and are there to sell their style. Much like vendors, if you don’t treat them nicely and make things easy and affordable for them, then they probably won’t return. Artists talk to each other and frequently have a fan following, if something goes wrong then the odds are pretty good that they will let the world know. However, if you keep your Artists happy, they will return.

At some events the artists can also be considered your patrons, but frequently the artists are too busy manning their tables to be patrons. Either way, it is a good idea to ensure everything you provide for patrons is also for them.

Crafters

This is a fairly new category. Some think of crafters as vendors, others as artists. Traditionally artists alley is for two-dimensional art, but things have been changing and some artists are putting their art into less traditional mediums. As a convention organizer you need to decide what classification you want to put crafters under or are you going to keep them separate? No matter how you classify them, keep in mind that they can also be your patrons and like everyone else, they talk. They will promote your event before hand to get people to visit their booths/tables, but if they feel slighted at your event you can be sure they will let other know to avoid your shows.

Guests

These are frequently the ‘draw’ for your event. They are the names that you have chosen to invite to your convention. They can be anyone from sports figures to cosplayers. Guests can be artists, sports figures, voice actors, TV and movie stars, or even stars of social media. Guests can do a variety of things at your event including meet and greets, photo ops, panels, and event hosting.

You need to choose guests that will follow the theme of your convention. If you are a niche convention, such as anime or focused on a particular show, then it probably isn’t a good idea to bring in sports figures or wrestlers unless they are somehow tied to an anime or that show. However, wider ranged events like comic conventions, entertainment expos, and cosplay events can bring in a much broader range of people. Guests are typically compensated in some form. Compensation depends on your contract, it can be as simple as a free booth or table, room and board, or for many others there are monetary requirements. What you provide to them varies based on their individual requirements and your contracts and agreements.

Cosplayers

Cosplayers can fall into all categories. Most cosplayers will only be there as patrons however they can also be your guests and artists. Cosplayers that are there as patrons are a slightly different category than your average patron because if you provide a few simple accommodations for them, they add to the advertising and draw of your event. Happy cosplayers will talk about your event before it happens, share it on social media and encourage friends and followers to join them. They will also share stories and photos of the event afterwards, priming the pump for your next event.

Treat all cosplayers as your patrons, but a few extra accommodations like specific prop guidelines, trained security, cosplay focused panels, a cosplay area with photo ops, and maybe even a costume contest go a long to making them happy.

Staff

Without patrons you don’t have an event, but your staff can be the make or break of your event. A well-trained courteous staff may not be noticed, unless they go out of their way to help someone, but a poorly trained staff will definitely be noticed. Your staff can also be patrons, so treat them nice, even if you aren’t paying them at least compensate them with food and water.

Summary

This is just a basic classification overview for some of the people with whom a convention organizer deals. As the series progresses, we will break each of these down further and attempt to explore their requirements.

To find out more about setting up a convention, check out our handy page on Convention Running 101.

And just to reiterate our point – These are in no way the definitive be all and end all rules for a convention. They are only a guideline…a place to start.

They don’t apply to all conventions, and not every convention is big enough or capable of dealing with some of the things we discuss, but it doesn’t hurt to keep some of them in mind.

January 10, 2019 5 comments

Did Anime Midwest Go Overboard on Security?

by April Carvelli July 12, 2016

written by April Carvelli

A few interesting things happened in the cosplay world this weekend but it seems that the most interesting (to me) happened in Rosemont, IL, near Chicago with Anime Midwest.

I didn’t have an opportunity to attend the convention, but a lot of people I know did and I started seeing complaints around the web about security harassing them. I decided to investigate the issue and started asking questions. I started making calls, contacting people via Facebook, and even made a few Facebook posts asking people to contact me if they were harassed by Anime Midwest security.

I spoke with convention attendees, hotel patrons, and hotel employees. Everyone had slightly different stories and as far as I could tell there were two different perspectives to the security issues. Then Ryan Kopf decided to make a pre-emptive attack and write a counter to an article I had barely begun to research and in that article he called me out. His blog entry gave me a third perspective on the security issues.

The Location

The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center was holding two conventions over the July 8-10 weekend. It’s not unusual for a convention center to host more than one event at the same time, but usually the events are at different ends of the hall and totally unrelated to each other.

That wasn’t the case this weekend. The two conventions were Anime Midwest, a popular anime convention, and Exxxotica, a popular porn convention. Many people wished to attend both, and Exxxotica issued discount passes to any that held Anime Midwest tickets and could prove they were at least 18.

Exxxotica was held exclusively at the convention center, while Anime Midwest had events and rooms at both the hotel and the convention center. On a few occasions panel rooms for the two cons were next to each other.

The Issue

Security was everywhere asking everyone to show them their badges for Anime Midwest, and if they could not produce a badge they were told they could not enter public areas, such as the hotel lobby, or asked to leave if they were already in those areas.

Perspective 1 – Concerned Parents

I spoke directly with two different parents, one a convention virgin who was only along as chaperone for their teen and one who was a convention regular who frequently brought their teen along with them. I also received feedback from a few other parents who attended with their children.

Parents were concerned that an anime convention was running in conjunction with a porn convention and that both were in close proximity to each other. Their main concern was in regards to the ‘type’ of people the porn convention would attract. Both parents felt that the majority of attendees were no threat, but they also felt that a ‘porn’ con was more likely to attract perverts and child molesters.

As parents, they saw the anime crowd as young with most con-goers being under the age of 25 with a large portion under 18. They were concerned about the exposure their children might have to the more unsavory characters that would be at a porn convention.

To them the security was a minor nuisance, but they also saw it as protection for the minors. They assumed the added security was to keep trouble away from their children and keep the unwanted element away from the younger crowd.

However, there were also complaints from parents about the security being excessive. One parent complained to me about security grabbing the arm of her teen and demanding to see a con pass, even though they were done with the con and on their way to the restaurant. The security ignored the mother and seemed to single out the teen because she was still in costume.

This woman with a young child complained about security grabbing her arm while she was holding the kid on the escalator.

If the extra security was arranged for these reasons, I would be in full agreement with it and just write off a few incidents as over zealousness. If Ryan Kopf’s post about the security had said anything along these lines, then I probably would have just dropped the whole security issue. Never did he say a single word about the porn convention or the proximity of minors.

Perspective 2 – The Hotel Patrons

People pay to stay at a hotel. While at the hotel they are allowed to use the amenities, provided they do not abuse them. Most of those amenities are public, meaning that they share them with anyone else that is using the hotel. Typical amenities which are for semi-public use include pool, business facility and ice machine; this means you should be a guest of the hotel to use them. Amenities for public that do not require you to be a guest of the hotel are the bar and restaurant.

Areas such as the lobby are the gray area between, they are technically public areas open to everyone. The intent is to be an area where guests can meet up with each other or friends, or where guests can just sit and relax without feeling isolated in their room. It is also used as a waiting room for transportation, rooms, deliveries, meetings and a huge variety of other things.

The Hyatt is attached to the convention center and hosted many of the Anime Midwest events, which meant that a lot of Anime Midwest attendees stayed at the hotel. However, Anime Midwest did not fill the hotel. There were plenty of other patrons there, including pilots and stewardesses, attendees for Exxxotica, and business people.

If Anime Midwest had filled the entire hotel themselves, then they would have had the right to restrict access to the semi-public areas and perhaps the public areas, if their hotel contract gave them exclusive access to them.

I have reports of hotel patrons being repeatedly asked by security to produce their badges for Anime Midwest. It would be understandable if the hotel patrons were trying to enter a room reserved for an Anime Midwest event, or even if they were going down a hallway where all the rooms led to an Anime Midwest event, but that wasn’t always the case.

I have been told that at one point there was a rope across the front doors of the hotel with Anime Midwest staff asking people to produce a badge before they were allowed to enter. I’ve also received reports of people being stopped on the Skywalk before they got to the convention or the hotel. Some reports have people being asked to produce an Anime Midwest badge, others tell me it was a hotel key or an Anime Midwest badge.

If people simply responded that they were staying at the hotel, or that they had tickets for the following day, they were frequently ‘chased off’, unless they could provide sufficient proof to appease the appointed Anime Midwest security.

I’ve heard from a few Exxotica vendors that felt they were harassed by the hired security. They were in the lobby area, in regular clothing when approached by security. They were asked to produce their badges and one pulled out his Exxxotica ID, at which point he was told “you’re not supposed to be here.” Another reported their group was told “you’re not allowed to be here.” Which version of the wording was used is hard to determine, but they were essentially chased out of a public space they had every right to use.

The access issues were even reported on the review page for the hotel itself;

Of course not everyone was harassed by the hired convention security:

I went there after wrapping up some photo shoots in the early afternoon fully expecting to do just that but no one said a word to me. I asked a hotel front desk staffer that happened to be walking by if I was going to get stopped if I went to Red Bar and she told me (very flustered) that she had no idea what I was talking about of course I won’t be stopped. I smiled and thanked her, …

And many of the comments I received on the security aren’t worth posting due to language, but I grabbed several screen shot reviews. The complaints ranged from totally pissed off to mildly annoyed.

Frequently hotel staff and security were contacted directly by disgruntled patrons, and all of the staff had the same thing to say. The third-party security had no authority to enforce anything.

One annoyed hotel patron went directly to the Hyatt security head:

“… I did talk to the head of Hyatt security for about ten minutes on the phone. He was very annoyed at Ryan Kopf and apologetic to me. I forgot his name, but really nice guy. He basically said what everyone is saying who talked to hotel staff, the third party security has no authority.”

Perspective 3- Ryan Kopf

This will be addressed in a whole separate article, so stay tuned for what goes up tomorrow.

July 12, 2016 10 comments