Extortion by ‘WordPress provider’

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  srqminibus · Member · Oct 1, 2022 at 5:21 pm

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  I have been hacked and blocked from accessing my website ‘due to corrupt theme related plug-in’s’. The supposed ‘Wordpress Team’ is extorting $185 to ‘fix’ the issue. Please advise!

  WP.com: Unknown
  Jetpack: Yes
  Correct account: Yes

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to moderators and staff)

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  staartmees · Member · Oct 1, 2022 at 5:30 pm

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  We can’t help you as your site isn’t running on the wordpress.com platform.
  I would say you must contact your hosting support.

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  srqminibus · Member · Oct 1, 2022 at 9:49 pm

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  The website is running on WordPress.com
  The url is purchased from GoDaddy, the template was purchased from Envato Forest Theme and the interface is WordPress.com business.
  Please advise on the following:

  My website has been hacked and I can not gain access to purge my website of malware. Who at WordPress can help? I was sent an email from ‘Wordpress’ prompting me to access my account through a link in the email. Now I am completely locked out of my WordPress professional account. I called the phone number featured as WordPress support. They placed me on hold for 25min as they were ‘figuring out my issue’ then then disconnected. I called back to ask what happened. The same person answered both calls which made me suspicious. He claimed to work for WordPress and needed a one time service payment of $185. to rectify the situation on my behalf.
  I said this must be a scam and the man immediately hung up! Please help as I am still unable to access my website…!

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  srqminibus · Member · Oct 2, 2022 at 1:07 am

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  Staartmees,
  Did you mean ‘running’ as in ‘hosting’?
  My website is hosted by SiteGround. I presented my issue to them and the technical support team rectified the issue within 15min.
  Super appreciative to them!
  That said, ‘Wordpress’ insisted that my plugins were incompatible (woo commerce plugin) and on top of that, I had exceeded my website space limit.
  SiteGround said this was far from the truth.
  — is WordPress intel out of the loop? Hacked?
  Please advise

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  aleone89 · Staff · Oct 2, 2022 at 10:07 am

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  Hello there,

  The website is running on WordPress.com
  The url is purchased from GoDaddy, the template was purchased from Envato Forest Theme and the interface is WordPress.com business.

  Can you tell us the URL of the site you’re referring to please? We’d just like to double check the set up of the site.