My Ex Hacked My Facebook, Can I Press Charges?

If your ex hacked your Facebook account and you’re thinking about pressing charges, you can legally sue your ex for invading your privacy. Electronic data is considered your property, so anything your transpasses on and ex takes without your awareness and permission is considered illegal.

The real question, though, is whether it’s worth going down the legal path. If your ex just logged into your account to see if you were talking to someone else, your ex was probably anxious and meant no harm. He or she lacked control over your life, so your ex did what most anxious dumpees do.

Your ex stalked you obsessively and tried to figure out what was going on with you. It wasn’t right for your ex to hack into your Facebook account, but your ex got scared and couldn’t handle uncertainty. Your ex needed to make sure you weren’t up to no good.

There’s probably no cause for alarm. Unless your ex did something harmful to you and your loved ones (something like sending others yours private pictures, telling them your most intimate secrets, and ruining your reputation), it would be smarter to just forget about it.

Exes (especially dumpees) do all sorts of desperate things to feel even the tiniest sense of hope and control after the breakup. They check their ex’s socials, text their ex, show up unannounced at their ex’s work or home, beg for another chance, and sometimes even hack their ex’s Facebook and other social media accounts.

They typically don’t mean any harm.

It’s the dumpees and dumpers who intend to hurt you and your loved ones that you should be worried about. Those who send you threats, demand things from you, refuse to let you see your kids, refuse to return your essentials, and those who hack into your social media accounts and try to stir up trouble for you, they’re the ones you should do something about.

If they’re capable of rationalizing, you can talk to them and see what they want. Maybe you can solve the problem nicely and let them off the hook by sympathizing with them. Sometimes even the most difficult situations can be solved through conversation and understanding.

When that is not possible, exes usually have too much resentment for each other and don’t want to communicate. They don’t even want to consider speaking to each other. Such exes often have no choice but to let someone else do the speaking for them.

Or to simply press charges.

I advise you to ask your family for help first. Your family members can reach out to your ex or your ex’s family and try to resolve the problems peacefully. Once they know what your ex did, they can talk some sense into your ex and dissuade him or her from hacking your Facebook and causing problems for you.

Parents especially should see things objectively and advise their offspring to act maturely post-breakup.

If parents, guardians, family, or friends don’t want to get involved, then you only have two other options.

1. Change your password and block your ex.
2. Get a restraining order against your ex and sue your ex for invading your privacy and spreading misinformation/causing unnecessary drama.

Logging onto your profile without permission is a crime. Your ex knows that but your ex doesn’t care because your ex feels angry, anxious, invalidated, and many other post-breakup emotions.

The breakup made your ex obsessed with you and caused your ex to crave your validation. Since you aren’t giving it to your ex, your ex is now trying to self-validate by making sure you’re not doing anything bad. Bad things involve you talking to other people, flirting, and preparing to monkey branch.

If your ex is intentionally causing harm (not just spying on you), then your ex is trying to get revenge on you. Revenge would calm your ex down as your ex would see that you’re also hurting and not moving on.

I’m assuming your ex is a dumpee as dumpees tend to lose their cool and try to regain control and hope by force. Dumpers usually don’t do that as they don’t need anything from their ex. They’re over their ex, so they want to be left alone and focus on themselves.

When dumpers hack into their ex’s Facebook account, they tend to do it randomly out of boredom and curiosity. They want to see if the old password still works and if their ex has met anyone else.

Bipolar, borderline, and narcissistic dumpers occasionally hack their ex’s accounts due to hard-to-stop emotions. They feel that their ex got away too easily and then wonder why that is. Oftentimes, they intend to cause problems.

So if your ex hacked your Facebook and you’re wondering if you can press charges, you probably can, depending on where you live. Anything done to you online without your permission is punishable by law.

The problem though is that it may not be worth it. Think about the time, money, health, and emotions you’re going to spend on punishing someone who logged onto your account. Also, know that you might have a difficult time proving it was your ex who hacked your account.

Unless you have proof it was your ex (conversations your ex had with others or your ex admitting it), you’re better off changing your password or creating a new profile if your ex stole the account from you. I’ve seen enough ugly breakups to know that arguing with exes and making them do what you want them to do is a waste of time.

You’re not weak for backing off. You’re smart because you prioritize your health and well-being. Suing exes for small things is the biggest waste of time ever. Nothing good will come of it because you’ll remain bitter and focused on someone who doesn’t deserve your attention and energy.

I always advise people to forget the small amounts of owed money and the few pieces of clothes they left at their ex’s place. The misery that will ensue from pursuing belongings, money, or respect is not worth it.

In this article, we discuss what to do when your ex hacks your Facebook and if you can press charges.

My ex hacked my Facebook, can I press charges?

Although you can press charges against your ex for hacking your Facebook account, it may not be worth the time and effort. Suing your ex could take years or longer, and still wouldn’t give you the justice and satisfaction you deserve and crave.

It would only foster more anger and delay your suffering.

Therefore, the best justice and revenge after a breakup is living a happy and successful life. Success and happiness require you to leave your old life behind and find inner peace and stability without getting back at your ex.

You won’t find happiness by showing your ex that your account was your life and that hacking it was the biggest mistake of his or her life. You can recover from this ex-drama by staying away from your ex and refusing to give your ex the satisfaction of seeing you enraged.

Oftentimes, manipulative exes only want to get a reaction out of you. A strong negative reaction tells them they’re important and capable of manipulating your feelings. It shows them you still think about them and have unfinished business with them.

That’s enough for them to feel validated as they see how unhappy and spiteful you are.

Malicious exes want you to feel what they feel. They want you to be miserable so they can be miserable with you. Nothing makes them happier and boosts their ego more than seeing you wasting your time arguing with them.

If your ex hacked your Facebook but didn’t message people or post nasty things on your profile, your ex probably doesn’t want to hurt you. Your ex wants to see what the real reason for breaking up is and what you’ve been up to.

Gaining an insight into the breakup helps them cope with the breakup. That is unless they find something they’re not supposed to. Something like sexual conversations with other another person or chats about not finding them attractive and not wanting to be with them.

Dumpees shouldn’t dig for information where they’re not supposed to dig. They mustn’t find out what their ex thinks about them and what their ex is doing after the breakup. Learning such matters not only kills too much hope at once but also ruins their health, well-being, growth, and recovery.

Some dumpees, sadly, just can’t stop themselves from acting on impulse. They don’t have good self-control, so they do anything their emotions tell them to do. If they feel rejected and their emotions tell them to message their ex, they message their ex.

And if their emotions tell them to hack into their ex’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, they do that too. They ignore their values because they haven’t gained control over their emotions yet. They never found a reason to improve themselves or they just ignored all warnings.

People need to work on themselves in order to avoid acting on impulse. They need to improve their morals as well so they can set some healthy rules that prevent them from acting irrationally. Those who have no rules have no boundaries.

They do what feels right rather than what is right.

Each one of us is responsible for maintaining our health and emotions. If your ex isn’t doing that, your ex is a danger to himself/herself, you, and others.

Even though you used to be close to your ex, you need to understand you’re not responsible for teaching your ex how to behave and not to behave.

Your ex needs to learn that on his or her own. And your ex will learn it when he or she encounters someone who doesn’t tolerate mistreatment or illegal activities. You could be the person who forcibly teaches your ex lessons, but if you really want your ex to get hit by karma, don’t teach your ex anything.

Let your ex carry on the way he or she is and your ex will run into more problems later.

Sometimes legal actions teach people to respect the law. And sometimes, they don’t. You need to figure out what your goal is first. If you just want closure, you don’t need to press charges. You can sign up for therapy and surround yourself with people you love.

Distancing yourself from your ex will help you more than proving your point in court.

But if your ex has caused you immense reputational damage (let’s say by posting your nude pictures), then you can (and probably should) take your ex to court or at least report your ex to the police. Not only will your ex have to pay for the emotional damage and give you closure, but your ex will also get punished by the law.

Here’s when you should take your ex to court and when you should report him or her to the police.

What to do when your ex hacks your Facebook?

If your ex merely logged onto your Facebook, change the password and be done with it. There’s no need to take your ex to court just for snooping around. As I mentioned before, your ex is probably just obsessed and curious about your new life and will eventually stop caring about what you’re doing.

Your ex doesn’t have the right to log onto your account, but people break the rules and even the law all the time. You’ve probably jaywalked a couple of times yourself. Think of your ex’s behavior as extreme but acceptable, considering the pain and suffering your ex is going through.

On the other hand, if your ex changed your password, try to get your account back. Hit the password recovery option and see if you can recover your stolen account. I don’t think you should sue your ex for causing you some minor inconveniences that can easily be undone.

As long as you have your phone number and/or profile-recovery answers, you should be able to get your account back. If you can’t get it back and your account is important to you (not just to your ego), then you have a decision to make.

You can contact the police and try to resolve the problem right away or you can take the long route and sue your ex.

If your ex isn’t cooperating, you must either let the account go or involve the authorities. Don’t threaten your ex and call your ex names. Violence will only make things worse.

Those who try extorting things from their ex by force usually learn that manipulative exes love to fight and that they they’ll only waste their time.

What you can do before you get the police and courts involved is to talk to your ex patiently and respectfully. Ask your ex if he or she has changed your password and tell your ex you won’t be angry if he/she did. Your ex might soften up and admit to changing it.

If your ex doesn’t, tell your ex you’d appreciate it if he or she changed it to something simple such as your name 123.

If the nice approach doesn’t work, you can also contact a lawyer and ask him or her to send your ex a formal warning. This warning should explain what your ex has done and that there is sufficient evidence to take him/her to court.

Make sure to give your ex limited time to comply.

And that’s it. Now you know what to do if your ex hacked your account. Let us know if you’re going to press charges in the comments below.

And if you want to discuss this further with us, make sure to sign up for breakup coaching.

Zan

My name is Zan and I’m the founder of Magnet of Success. I enjoy writing realistic relationship and breakup articles and helping readers heal and grow. With more than 5 years of experience in the self-improvement, relationship, and breakup sphere, my goal is to provide advice that fosters positivity and success and avoids preventable mistakes and pain. Buy me a coffee, learn more about me, or get in touch today.