Cork musicians left 'heartbroken' after hackers take over social media accounts 

CORK musicians have been left “heartbroken” after their social media accounts were taken over by hackers just as the live music industry commenced its comeback.

Cork band, Sparkle, made up of Jennifer Bowler and Caroline Bailey, were “sickened” to discover that their social media platforms were hacked just days before they were due to release their new single.

On Tuesday, Jennifer discovered that her personal Facebook account along with their business page for Sparkle and their Instagram page, had been taken over by hackers.

When she tried to gain access, she had been locked out of her Facebook account.

“We can’t access any of our social media. My personal Facebook is gone, the Sparkle Facebook is gone, and the Sparkle Instagram is gone,” she said.

In addition, she said the hackers have also been trying to access her bank account.

“On top of it then we have a new song coming out tomorrow [Friday], and I can’t even promote it.

“We’ve been working on an EP for the last couple of months, over lockdown and everything and obviously there has been no work for the last 19 months.

“You couldn’t make it up at this stage, after being out of work for so long.” 

With over 11,000 followers on Facebook and 3,500 on Instagram, it had taken the duo years to build up their followings.

As their new single is due to release on Friday, they are hoping that they will be able to regain access to the accounts soon.

However, for now, they are waiting in hope that Facebook can help them to retrieve the pages.

“I’m heartbroken because I know it’s only social media, but when it’s your business, you have to work so hard to build it up and to get a good following.

“Even through the lockdown, I put in so much effort to try and keep Sparkle’s name out there because there was nothing for musicians in the last 19 months, so we were doing charity gigs live on the page and we were doing that sort of stuff to help people as much as we could as well.

“It’s just an awful kick in the teeth.” In the meantime, Sparkle can be contacted on sparklebandcork@gmail.com