BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Being an identical twin has its advantages, especially during the playful days of youth and young adulthood. There can be a flip side to that fun, however, as two identical twins from Bakersfield, 33 years old, learned recently after they ran into some problems on social media associated with their identical twinness.

It started when the Facebook account of Natalie Wilkins, the older of the two sisters by two minutes, was hacked by an unknown party, who changed the email address, phone number and password associated with her account. She tried to restore her account by switching to a different email address, but Facebook responded by disabling it altogether. 

Natalie – she’s the one with the beauty mark – created an entirely new account, but the social media colossus then disabled the account of her twin sister Stephanie Castillo. Stephanie – she’s the one with the dimples – provided Facebook with proof of identity and her account was restored. But then Facebook disabled Natalie’s second account. Now they don’t know what to do – except appeal.

“I didn’t make a new account,” Natalie said. “I don’t want her to lose that” one account she has.

Some might say, give me a break! It’s Facebook. Get a life! Well, here’s the thing.

“It’s connected to my business and my clientele, and with family and friends as well,” Stephanie said.

That’s right. It’s a marketing tool for her five-month-old dog grooming business,  the Pawsitive Salon, on 19th Street in downtown Bakersfield. For her and her business partner, Facebook is their professional portfolio – a combination resume 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 cuz there are other identical twins in the world,” Stephanie said. “There’s a lot, actually.”

It’s tough enough running a small business without being at the mercy of one of the biggest businesses on earth. It’s not quite David and Goliath – the two sides are ostensibly on the same team – but it’s starting to feel like it.

So they wait and hope the social media giant – which deals with innumerable cases of fraud each day – figures things out. It’s hard for them to be too mad – U.S. consumers lost $770 million in social media scams last year – but they would like Facebook to make things right.

KGET reached out to Facebook for comment on the situation but did not hear back Monday.