Michiana professor sues Meta after being hacked on Facebook

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. -- A local professor is taking Meta to small claims court in Elkhart County after her Facebook account got hacked.

She's alleging Invasion of Privacy after someone posing as her online invited a stranger to her home to pick up a nonexistent item.

Going to court was never her first choice, and while it sounds extreme, the impact the hack has had on her personal life over the last month has been just as extreme.

"Honestly my last straw was getting interviewed by the FBI," shares Dr. Kaycee Bills, PhD, a local professor.

Her Facebook account was compromised on November 13.

The hacker began posting a fake story that her uncle moved into a nursing home, and they needed to downsize his belongings.

Everything from vehicles, heavy-duty equipment, and household appliances were posted for sale on her Facebook page.

"I had all these people contacting me saying 'You know, I'm so sorry about your uncle, what can we do to help? I don't want to buy your Honda Civic but I'll donate some money', you know, and it was just constant," Bills explains.

Then, an instance of a stranger showing up to her front door, thinking they were buying her 'uncle's' old microwave.

"They were very nice, they were very sympathetic about my uncle, sad they didn't get their microwave," says Bills.

It began to impact everyday life over the next month, with Bills having to explain to her friends and family that the posts were fake.

"Even my grandma said, 'Which one of my sons is not okay and why didn't you tell me?"

It also affected her work as a professor at a local college.

"Just seeing an email from a student, sincerely compassionate saying 'I'm so sorry that you're going through this, we really feel for you, what can we do to help?' That was what really hurt me, was seeing this is impacting my students, this is impacting the people I work with," says Bills.

It also didn't help that she was starting to gain a bit of a fanbase at around the same time.

In September, she appeared in an episode of Kill Tony, a well-known comedy show, and her segment went viral.

People started friending her on Facebook for her comedy, but were met with the fake sob story.

"Strangers were angry at me because they thought I was using my platform to scam people when it wasn't me," recalls Bills.

Fed up with it all, she tried to solve her own problem and get her account back through Meta Verified support.

But that reportedly didn't get her far.

"They wouldn't help me; they wouldn't do anything about it," Bills says.

One Google search later, she learned that the best way to get Meta's attention is to file a lawsuit.

"On December 19, Facebook did send me an email saying that 'After further investigation, we have found out you were indeed compromised,' but by that time it was too late," Bills says. "A court date was set, and the damage was done."

She hopes sharing her story can help others who get hacked online and feel like they have no options left.

"Another avenue you can take is to pay seventy dollars at the courthouse, do a filing fee, and you can get your Facebook account back! That's really all I want from this, just no more people to be scammed by this fake person using my identity," Bills admits.

Her Facebook account has since been taken down.

She tells ABC57 a legal representative for Meta appeared in court via Zoom Tuesday morning for the pretrial hearing.

The representative asked the judge for an extension before trial, but that was denied.

The date for the upcoming trial has not yet been decided.