AUGUST 16, 2025

IMPORTANT INFORMATION CONCERNING THE HACKING OF THE NATIONAL WOLFWATCHER FACEBOOK PAGE

The Grim Reality of Scammers

Three weeks ago, we began receiving "strange" messages through Facebook that had nothing to do with wolves or wildlife issues. Action was taken to delete them. But, then one morning there were over 25 messages that had originated from Asia and Africa. This prompted us to investigate.

A person, who we did not know had been granted administrative access to our page. Although the person was deleted, the damage had been done. Hackers had control of our page and even changed our name . In addition, they cloned our page. With the help of Meta, we were able to deactivate the cloned page. But we were not able to recover our page and over 10 years of posts, pictures, videos and all our followers were lost.

We believe the hackers have been trolling us for months and waited patiently for the right time to strike. Other groups have also been hit in a similar way.

Our website has not been affected.

WHY?

Why would a hacker target a relatively small non-profit organization? It is because we had over 750,000 followers. With access to our page, they would have been able to sell merchandise, (that would never arrive), take money from supporters and spread viruses - all the while pretending to be Wolfwatcher.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

While we believe we caught the breach in time, If you follow us on Facebook, change your password as a precautionary measure. (We thought we were secure too!)

Unless you know the person directly, DONOT accept any friend requests, especially if that person is from a foreign country. Do not rely on the fact the person asking to be your friend has a "mutual friend". We also suggest you review your friend list and "unfriend" anyone you do not know who lives in a foreign country.

Do not purchase any items from a company claiming to be Wolfwatcher. The only merchandise we sell is through our store on our website and several times a year, we promote a fundraising campaign through our newsletter. We are planning one next month and will notify you through a newsletter and on Facebook.

Emails from Wolfwatcher end with wolfwatcher.org - do not accept or click on any link within an email claiming to be Wolfwatcher unless in comes from [email protected] Board members also have email accounts using the server wolfwatcher.org

If you receive a solicitation or email that seems suspicious, contact us at [email protected]

WHAT WE HAVE DONE

We have a new FACEBOOK page. Our logo is our profile picture and the image above is our cover photo. And we would be most appreciative if you would like us on our new page as we slowly rebuild.

While this is a setback for us, we are not deterred and we will continue to fight for wolves.

THANK YOU!

Without YOU, our loyal supporters, the National Wolfwatcher Coalition would not exist. We are appreciative of your support throughout the past years and look forward to your continued support in the future!

For the latest scientific information, please visit OUR WEBSITE and while there, you can shop at OUR STORE

www.wolfwatcher.org

[email protected]

DONATE NOW