Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- It was quite a scare for one family after hackers posted a fake suicide note on a local teen’s Facebook page last week.
Eighteen-year-old Onondaga Community College student Mike Huertas was just your typical teen with a typical Facebook account when the fake note popped up on his page.
Huertas’ mom, Shannon Wells says she was brought to tears when she got a devastating call from someone wanting to know if Mike was okay.
The note posted to Mike’s page read something like this: "Dear Mom and Dad, I can’t take life any more. I tried to take pills and was unsuccessful." The note goes on describing other ways Mike allegedly tried to kill himself and ends with, "I'm sorry. I love you."
A flood of calls soon followed.
"I had people that I hadn't talked to in forever calling me, blowing up my phone you know, practically crying because they thought I was really committing suicide,” Mike said.
Not home at the time, Mike called soon after to set the record straight and put his mom’s fears at ease.
The hacking was reported and Facebook deleted Mike’s page. But the hackers struck again, creating a “Rest in Peace” page for Mike, which now includes more than 180 comments, many of them vulgar from what appear to be made up accounts.
And to top it all off, a YouTube video soon followed, titled “The Ballad of Mike Huertas.” It’s since been pulled from the site.
The YouTube video included names and phone numbers of the people Mike was friends with on Facebook. The hackers also got into his Gmail account and changed his password for both accounts so he couldn’t get in.
Incidents like this are known as "Internet trolling," when a person adopts a false identity, or hacks into a real one and posts comments online.
NewsChannel 9 is getting Mike in contact with the New York State Computer Crimes Unit to see what can be done.
