A Cork-based business, whose social media account was hacked, says it now has to build a customer base again.
Box of Kindness offers personalised luxurious gift boxes for all occasions.
Owner Charlene Corkery told Lunchtime Live she clicked on an e-mail link which looked legitimate.
"I was away in Dingle for the weekend and I put an 'out of office' story on my Instagram.
"Even though we've a website, we still have a lot of enquiries - message requests - and you want courtesy to say 'I'll respond to them all on my return'.
"On Sunday, I got a very legitimate looking Instagram message, saying that I need to follow this link, because I'll be banned from my page because of copyright infringement.
"But basically for playing a song that I wasn't meant to."
Charlene says she feels "a little bit silly" but believed the e-mail to be real.
"I just filled in my e-mail that was connected to Box of Kindness - and on Monday I woke up and I'd messages... to say 'Box of Kindness seems to be gone'.
"A page - the hacker, King Sanchez - is still circulating around Facebook, which scares me a small bit because I have no control and Instagram aren't doing anything about it."
'Whipped away within seconds'
Charlene says this gang hacked her account, took over the page and deleted all its content.
"I started this business just as a small concept during lockdown, and the amount of time I've put into this business and growing it successfully for it to be just whipped away within seconds is absolutely horrifying.
"I'm not a multinational company, I don't have half a million followers - but I just want to reiterate so much that anyone can be affected".
Charlene says ultimately a €10,000 ransom was made by the hackers to give her the page back. She says this was never going to be paid.
"I'm unsure what they think I sell in my boxes, but that's an awful lot of money.
"And I wouldn't be subjected to any blackmail ever - so essentially I'm starting from the very start".
Charlene says she feels bad for her company, and also her customers.
"I'm upset for me, yes, but upset for these people - followers - that are my customers or potential customers that support me day in, day out".
And she says she has not gone to the Gardaí, after getting no response from Instagram.
"They have no control over Instagram and Facebook - Instagram and Facebook are getting thousands of what's happened to me per day.
"But to be honest, they're not even looking at 'Charlene in Cork, Box of Kindness' - they don't care.
"It's like a catch 22: Instagram wants us to sell on there, they want us to use their platform."
The company's new Instagram page is box_ofkindness
