Harrogate blogger blackmailed by scammers reclaims Instagram account

A Harrogate blogger who was blackmailed by scammers is relieved today after managing to get back into her Instagram account.

Lucy Playford has run the Harrogate Mama blog and social media channels for six years and provides updates on family life in the town and visits to local businesses.

But Turkey-based scammers tricked their way into her Instagram account, which has 6,000 followers, and demanded money to hand it back. She feared the account was lost forever.

However, there has been a twist in the tale — a day after a Stray Ferret article highlighted the blogger’s plight, she has managed to get back into her account.

Ms Playford described yesterday how it happened:

“The hackers posted on my account tonight at a little after 9pm, thankfully due to your reporting and so many people knowing I’d been hacked lots of people contacted me to let me know the hackers were posting.

“This quick alerting led me being able to see the hackers had changed the name of my account to HarrogetaMama (deliberately spelled wrong to trick people) – and they were trying to extort money from my followers asking for investment.”

The suspicious Instagram post posted last night.

Ms Playford added:

“This meant now I could see what the account had been re-named, I could go through the verification process with Instagram again. This time the selfie verification process worked and I received retrieval codes from Instagram, albeit in Turkish, so Google Translate came in handy!

“After over two hours’ work between my husband and myself we managed to get back into the account. We have now changed the username back to HarrogateMama, changed the email address and set up the two-factor authentication.

“The swift action of so many people alerting me to the hackers posting meant I could get my account back.

“Lessons learned and message to spread about ALWAYS setting up two-factor authentication.”

Harrogate blogger devastated after scammers blackmail her

Lucy Playford, who runs the Harrogate Mama blog and social media channels, has been left devastated after scammers tricked their way into her Instagram account and demanded money to hand it back.

Ms Playford provides updates on family life in the town and visits to local businesses to her 6,000 followers on Instagram.

After recently changing social media software, she received an email from what she thought was Meta, the owner of Instagram, asking to verify her account.

The blogger typed in her username and password and was then locked out the next day. This type of crime is known as phishing.

She then received a WhatsApp message from the scammers blackmailing her.

Ms Playford said:

“I was really shocked and upset, I was devastated really. It’s like a theft of anything but it’s a theft of my family’s memories over the last six years.”

After receiving the message she then blocked the number:

“I just thought don’t engage with them, it’s like all hostage takers, don’t negotiate”.

Messages from the scammers

Read more:

Ms Playford has reported the crime to North Yorkshire Police and Instagram, but so far has had no success in getting her account back, and she fears it may now be lost forever.

The blogger has set up a new account (instagram.com/HarrogateMamaLucy) where she hopes her old followers will find her.

She said:

“My main following was on Instagram, I like to champion local Harrogate businesses and lots of people followed me for a long time but they have been left wondering where I am. It’s hard”.

Ms Playford has urged social media users to be vigilant against scammers.

“My main advice would be to set up two-factor identification. Also have a password that is not easy to hack.”

Harrogate council chief scolds councillor for calling influencer a ‘waste of money’

A leaked email reveals Harrogate Borough Council chief executive Wallace Sampson gave a councillor a dressing down after he said spending £700 on a social media influencer to promote the town was an “appalling waste of money”.

The Stray Ferret has obtained an email Mr Sampson sent to the Liberal Democrat councillor for New Park, Matthew Webber, in February.

In the email, Mr Sampson claimed the councillor’s comments, published on this website, caused a “great deal of hurt” to council staff.

However, Cllr Webber said the tone of Mr Sampson’s 500-word email was “laughable” and compared it to a schoolteacher telling off a child for being naughty.

Cllr Webber said:

“Councillors should be there to hold people to account. People shouldn’t get upset if we’re asking difficult questions. Nothing was said in a personal way or at individual people.”

Value for money?

The Stray Ferret revealed in January that Harrogate Borough Council paid Heather Cowper from Bristol £700 to promote the town’s Christmas Fayre in a blog — which only received two likes when posted on Facebook, including one from the council itself.

Her posts performed slightly better on Instagram but the investment raised questions over whether the fee represented good value for money to council tax payers.

Cllr Webber, who sits on the council’s audit and governance committee that scrutinises council spending, said the council should have used local residents to promote the town instead.

Cllr Matthew Webber

He said in January:

“It probably received less likes on the various social media platforms than we could have got from just posting a similar article ourselves or other local residents who have social media profiles.”

Read more:

A telling off

The email from Mr Sampson to Cllr Webber was sent in February this year.

Mr Sampson also copied in local Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Pat Marsh as well as council employees Gemma Rio, head of Destination Harrogate, Paula Lorimer, director of Harrogate Convention Centre and communications officer James Sherwood.

Mr Sampson’s email said “I don’t expect an apology from you” but warned that negative comments about the council in the press can “undermine morale and motivation of our hardworking staff”.

The email says:

“I also don’t think that it is unreasonable to expect members to support the hard work and dedication of their officers, especially following the events of the last two years, and to trust in their professionalism.”

The full email is below.

The email from Wallace Sampson to Cllr Webber

Free to comment

Cllr Webber said he was “surprised” to receive the email from Mr Sampson regarding his comments about the £700 spend on a social media influencer, which he said he stood by.

He said councillors should be free to comment on how the council spends the public’s money without interference from the chief executive.

The Stray Ferret asked Mr Sampson for a comment but did not receive a response.

Harrogate mum ‘excited’ to appear on Masterchef tonight

A Harrogate mum has spoken of her excitement at being chosen to appear as a contestant on MasterChef.

HR Project Manager Olayemi ‘Yemi’ Adelekan, 51, will show off her culinary skills on the popular BBC cooking show tonight at 8pm.

The married mum who has two children says she “loves cooking”. She grew up in Nigeria and has lived in Harrogate for the past nine years.

She told her Facebook followers:

“This is such an incredible and amazing opportunity for me and I’m so excited to go on this journey.

“Let’s just have some fun with food.”

Yemi, who is also a blogger, motivational speaker and author, will champion traditional Nigerian cuisine in the competition. However, her journey from Nigeria to the West Indies in 1995, then to the UK in 1997, has also had a major influence on her cooking style.

Read more:

Speaking about why she applied to go on MasterChef, she said:

“My boys are now grown up and moved out, so it’s time for new challenges in my life. MasterChef is one of them.”

Tonight’s episode on BBC One kicks off the third week of MasterChef and it is coming up to the halfway point of the heats.

This year the judges are mixing it up. They are introducing a whole new set of challenges that the passionate amateurs must complete to progress in the competition.