BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Being an identical twin has its perks, especially during the playful days of youth and young adulthood. There can be a downside to that fun, however, as two identical twins from Bakersfield, 33, learned recently after encountering social media issues associated with their identical twinship.
It all started when the Facebook account of Natalie Wilkins, the eldest of two minute sisters, was hacked by a stranger, who changed the email address, phone number and password associated with her account. She tried to restore her account by changing her email address, but Facebook responded by disabling it completely.
Natalie – she’s the one with the mole – created a brand new account, but the social media colossus then deactivated her twin sister Stephanie Castillo’s account. Stephanie – she’s the one with the dimples – provided Facebook with proof of identity and her account was restored. But then Facebook deactivated Natalie’s second account. Now they don’t know what to do – except appeal.
“I haven’t created a new account,” Natalie said. “I don’t want her to lose this” an account she has.
Some might say, give me a break! It’s Facebook. Buy yourself a life! Well, here’s the thing.
“It’s tied to my business and my clientele, as well as my family and friends,” Stephanie said.
It’s true. It’s a marketing tool for his five-month-old dog grooming business, Pawsitive Salon, on 19th Street in downtown Bakersfield. For her and her business partner, Facebook is their professional portfolio – a combination of CV and catalog of services offered. Understatement of the day: the sisters are frustrated.
“I just feel like they need to work harder on their facial recognition software because there are other identical twins out there,” Stephanie said. “There are quite a few, actually.”
It’s hard enough to run a small business without being at the mercy of one of the biggest corporations in the world. It’s not quite David and Goliath – both teams are ostensibly on the same team – but it’s starting to feel like it.
So they wait and hope that the social media giant – which handles countless fraud cases every day – will figure things out. It’s hard for them to be too angry — US consumers lost $770 million to social media scams last year — but they’d like Facebook to fix it.
KGET contacted Facebook to comment on the situation but did not hear back Monday.
