Renowned artisan cheese firm hacked by online bully demanding money
An artisan cheese monger has been hacked on its Instag ram platform by acyb er bully demanding money in exchange for its account.
Rory M ellis, business director of IJM ellis, said he has been left “worried” and “surprised” after the Instagram account he ran for his family’s cheese business, @mellischeese, was hacked on Thursday morning.
The business, which has Edinburgh stores in Morning side and Stock bridge and Maturing Rooms in Lei th as well as Glasgow and St Andrews branches, generated a lot of trade through the online platform.
However, Mr Mellis found out that the page, which had a following of 15,000 people, was hijacked by an anonymous cyber bully under the name “Jeff Holland” on Thursday morning after he received a message from the hacker on Whatsapp.
“He’ s still messaging me and now he’s demanding money – it’s been really stressful and worrying,” Mr Mellis said.
“It came as a bit of a surprise that someone would target a family-run business in this way, especially so close to Christmas when we heavily rely on our social media outlets to keep our loyal customers up dated on our current promotions, opening hours and all things cheese.”
Mr Mellis, who has decided not to communicate with the cyber bully, said it has been a personal loss for the family as he has been running the “scrapbook of cheese memories” since he was a boy.
He said: "I have spent eight years building and curating the page since I was 15 years old. It was the first real contribution I had made to the family business and is something I was very proud of as I managed to consistently grow our online community.”
An Ins tag ram spokes person has commented that they are currently investigating the case.
For now, IJ Mellis has started from scratch under its new handle@ me ll is cheese ltd and also its newly launched website.
Mr M ellis added :" It may seem like a rather millennial problem to have, especially with so many local businesses struggling during this tough time, but having the a bi lity to communicate with our customer base is extremely important for us especially in the lead up to our busiest time of year.”