November 3, 2022 2.00 pm This story is over 22 months old

“Nice try Grinch”: Lincoln Christmas Market page recovered from hacker

Council working to take ‘The Grinch’ who hacked the page off the nice list
By Local Democracy Reporter

City of Lincoln Council’s Facebook page for the city’s annual Christmas Market is back in operation after it was hacked by a ‘Grinch’.

The hacker changed the local authority’s page name and removed posts on Friday, October 28 – with City of Lincoln Council asking Facebook to investigate the circumstances.

The name was changed to “Data Centre – Business Pages User” and the page sent out several spam-like messages, asking for the page to be verified with dubious looking links.

The page had been renamed and previous posts disappeared from the site.

It returned to normal functionality on Wednesday, November 2, but there is no sign of posts from the previous nine years of Lincoln Christmas Markets.

The council has thanked Lincoln MP Karl McCartney, who assisted in getting the page back after the incident.

City of Lincoln Council addressed the hack, taking to social media to say: “Well, that was an interesting few days! As you may or may not be aware, the Grinch stole our Facebook page for a short period of time.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be ensuring word gets back to Santa, and he will be off the nice list for some time! We would like to pass on our thanks to Karl McCartney MP for his kind help in this Christmas Chronicle.

“We have lots of exciting news to bring to you about this year’s Christmas Market so keep your eyes peeled on here for updates!”

Lincoln Christmas Market returns to the city on Thursday, December 1, running until Sunday, December 4 with an estimated quarter of a million people expected at the biggest annual event Lincoln has to offer.

Preparations are already well underway for Lincoln’s Christmas schedule, as the festive lights and decorations went up across the High Street and Cornhill areas on November 1 – just over two weeks before the big Christmas lights switch-on with Kerry Katona on November 17.

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