Facebook disabled my account

Facebook Disabled My Account After I was Hacked – Now What??

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After 13 years of using its platform, Facebook disabled my account. It’s true! Facebook has decided that I’m a threat to society. How does this make any sense? I have no idea, but let me just give you a little bit of backstory.

As I mentioned, I have been using Facebook both for personal and business purposes for over 13 years. Everything from the births of my children to celebrating the life of my great grandmother (our 5th generation in my family) to my marriage is all gone.

All of my memories were wiped out, but what’s even worse is that my business profile (Perfection Hangover) along with my group were also shut down.

The hackers also managed to send money via Facebook pay using the debit card linked to my Facebook ads account. To be completely blunt…I am livid.

As a content creator, it is so, so important that you understand that your Facebook page and profile and all of the content that you’ve uploaded to it is not yours.

It does not belong to you. So whether you have a personal account or a business account, just know that at the drop of a hat, Facebook has the option of taking down all of your content.

Why Did Facebook Disable Me?

Let’s get into the reason that Facebook disabled my account.

Someone hacked my Facebook profile and posted pictures of the Taliban doing really horrible things to Americans. They changed my profile picture and uploaded a lot of photos that were horrible.

Now, I understand why Facebook would want to pause my account and deactivate my account temporarily while they review it and check to see if I’m legit or not. It’s for the safety of its platform and users.

Your Account Has Been Disabled. You Can’t Use Facebook Because it Doesn’t Follow Community Standards…

As I tried to log back into my Facebook profile I was stopped with a message that read “Your account has been disabled. You can’t use Facebook becasue your account, or activity on it, doesn’t follow our community standards.”

So I answered about eight security questions to verify that:

  1. I haven’t uploaded certain photos.
  2. I haven’t added certain friends.
  3. I haven’t added a new debit or credit card.

along with a few other questions. Facebook then asks me to upload a copy of my driver’s license to verify my identity (which I reluctantly did).

I don’t know about y’all, but why on earth would Facebook need a copy of my state-issued ID? I don’t like that at all…..

So imagine my frustration after Googling and searching how to get your Facebook profile back and finding out that it could be anywhere from 3 to 21 days before I gain access to my account.

Keep in mind that my business is marketed on Facebook!

Well, on the third day of not having access to my Facebook profile, I tried to log in and I received the following message:

Facebook Disabled My Account After I was Hacked - Now What?? 1

Notice “We’ve already reviewed the decision, and it cannot be reversed.”

Some idiot who logged into my account and hacked it violated Facebook’s community standards (not me) and if Facebook actually manually reviewed accounts (as it says it does), it would be able to see the last thirteen years I’ve shared photos of my kids, memories of buying and selling different homes, different experiences and trips, and those are memories I can’t get back.

Those photos and memories are gone forever, so what’s the takeaway the number one take away?

Key Takeaway

Social media does not belong to you. Your profile does not belong to you. It belongs to whatever platform it is hosted on, and you always have the option of having that taken away.

Even YouTube, guys! If you are not saving your content as an original file onto your computer and are instead uploading straight from Final Cut Pro or iMovie directly onto YouTube, you don’t have a backup of that file.

In an instant, these platforms can shut down your profile, so going forward I have to rebuild all of my business profiles on Facebook.

I thought that I had added an admin to my Facebook group, but apparently not. Now my Perfection Hangover Community Facebook Group is just sitting out there, all willy nilly without an admin to approve and monitor content.

I Need a Massive Favor

I created a new Facebook page, and I’m starting from zero again, but we’re going to do this. Would you please go check out my Facebook page and “Like” it along with subscribing to my YouTube channel?

Every week, I share two new episodes (Tuesday and Friday) with money-saving and money-making tips to help YOU accomplish your financial goals.

374 thoughts on “Facebook Disabled My Account After I was Hacked – Now What??”

  1. Thank you for posting; this happened to me. Won’t be able to see some memories; but it does remind me to keep backup copies of photos.

  2. I’m going through this pain, my 4 yrs old page is hacked, the hacker is not uploading anything or doing anything but making transactions from my card attached to it and this is how I came to know. on Friday 11th August I received SMS alert from bank about 2 10$ transactions made through my debit card and I’m shocked. checked and account was ok but did not have access to facebook page 🙁 I deactivated my card right away and started to google and form filling raising tickets etc but facebook team has no time for this…. the hacker is trying to make transactions from my card which is declining and I’m getting sms alert. to sad that facebook has no live chat or urgent help system for real issues…

    1. This has happened to me twice. It starts off a little innocent, like “we think you may have been hacked” and then you answer some questions and they restore your account. You think everything is fine and then a couple of days later, you can’t access your account at all. I was never hacked, at least to my knowledge, I hadn’t noticed anything suspicious, and I was never given a reason as to what community standard I violated. They will not tell you either. They’ll just keep referring you to the TOS page.

  3. My story…On 6/4/23, everything was fine with my Facebook account when I went to bed that night. When I woke up on 6/5/23, I tried to access my Facebook account, only to find out that Facebook no longer recognized me as the person I’ve been led to believe I am for six decades and change, but as Tina Turner (FWIW, I’m a white male). Representing yourself as a famous person when you aren’t violates Facebook’s community standards, so my account was disabled. Of course, I didn’t try to represent myself as being Tina Turner. A hacker did that.

    I hate to accuse Facebook of hacking users’ accounts, but my password was 100 characters long and, according to the “How Secure Is My Password?” page on the security.org website, it would have taken a hacker trillions of years to successfully hack it. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think the average hacker would put that much effort into hacking a password. I have much shorter passwords on other social media platforms on which I have accounts and have never been hacked on any of those other platforms. Not once.

    I also believe Facebook benefits when users are forced to create additional accounts. Facebook makes its money from advertisers and I’m sure a selling point to those advertisers is the number of users Facebook has (think the “Billions and Billions Served” signs that McDonald’s used to have). Facebook probably figures that if a few thousand users are inconvenienced by having to create new accounts (something I don’t plan to do, for the record), it doesn’t matter if Facebook can make extra money from advertisers.

    When my account was disabled, I went to Reddit to see what actions people there were recommending. Among them were contacting the California Attorney General and having a letter sent to Facebook from personalclerk.com. I also filed a complaint with The Better Business Bureau (which Facebook ignored) and left a negative review of Facebook on Trustpilot.com. The latter only served to make me feel better and made me realize I am not alone. So far, no joy in getting my account back and I’m not holding my breath.

    1. This is exactly what has just happened to me. I woke up last week to find my account name changed and logged out. When I realised I had been hacked I used 2FA to regain access but told my account was disabled due to breach of community standards. Then told after submitting ID that the decision was permanent and couldn’t be reversed. I downloaded my data from them and it clearly shows someone from Haipong changed my information – I live in Manchester UK. So their own data proves I was hacked yet it is me that has lost everything. If anyone recovers their info let us know how. Just going around in endless circles.

    1. Nope.

      I was never allowed to reenter my second account either after some paranoid idiot flagged it as a clone.

      Facebook sucks.

      1. I’ve had the same thing happen to me. The hacker took all my contacts & then hacked my friends. How do you get in touch with FB??? I was never able to reply , or defend myself. So what can you do. They blocked me for 7 moths & then came back with we don’t like what you’ve been posting. Duh it’s not me. It even says the last time I signed in was over 7 myths ago. It is so frustrating.

    2. This just happened to me almost a week ago, so I’m assuming this is not a coincidence and that Facebook isn’t going to invest any time whatsoever in helping anyone get their accounts back.

    3. I managed to get mine back, but it was a pain in the butt. While I was waiting for them to “review” my account, I created another one, but it’s hard to rebuild years of what you created.

  4. this is exactly what I’m experiencing right now
    Someone has hacked my 19-year-old Facebook account and changed my name to “Jennifer Lopez”, violating some Facebook community standards. And now Facebook has disabled my profile without a warning. The worst-case scenario is that the Help Center doesn’t even allow me to submit an appeal. It appears, we cannot review the decision to disable your account. Your Facebook account was disabled because it did not follow our community standards. (We have already reviewed this decision, and it cannot be reversed.) As a result, I’m in a big bind because I have no way of proving my innocence. I have tons of memories and accomplishments loaded on my Facebook. I feel like Facebook purposely does this to old profile holders to save their space. Shame on you, Facebook.

    1. I am having a similar issue with facebook. I feel like I am being punished for someone else’s bad behavior. If they looked, they would find that I have been on facebook for 15 years with no incident. I did not have my debit card linked to my bank account but had a $1 withdrawal from MetaPay. Still not sure how that happened.

      1. Exactly!!!

        I ever wrote a snail mail letter to to their FB HQ, emailed their emails for appeals etc several times, asking them just that. Why am I being punished for being hacked. As if the bad faith from some people I once knew wasn’t enough.

        As Facebook has the monopoly they know they can just trash its users whilst spouting out all its hypocritical hooey about community standards.

  5. I’m in day 3 of experiencing THE EXACT SAME THING. This is not right and cannot continue. I’ve lost everything, my business, my memories, my contacts, even wages from my day job for having to deal with this. There has got to be a way to sue them for this. All the apps that we have connected to FB that we can’t use now because we put our trust in FB to allow these connections. They have a world of AI running their business and no humans anymore to take a look and make a rational investigation and decision on these things. It is just not right…

  6. Antonio Pereira

    Oh joy, my experience is just like so many others who have had the pleasure of being hacked. Two days ago, I was “luck enough” to waking up to the nightmare that my Facebook account had been compromised. Lo and behold, my profile picture had been replaced by some random nobody named Lilly Collins, who I had the pleasure of never hearing of before. And wouldn’t you know it, not one of my so-called friends even bothered to ask me about the sudden change. No-one noticed it.

    Well, isn’t this just perfect? My account had been blocked, leaving me feeling completely helpless and exposed. But no worries, I diligently followed Facebook’s protocol to try and get it re-activated, only to get a big fat zero. I had been a devoted user of Facebook since 2009, but apparently, my loyalty meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. Losing access to my account was nothing short of a catastrophic disaster, memory lane wise.

    As if things couldn’t get any worse, Facebook’s response was a real gem: completely dismissive and utterly unhelpful. I mean, how could I forget their famous line: “Your account has violated our Community Standards and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Ah, the sweet sound of finality, knowing that I had lost years’ worth of memories and connections.

    Oh, but wait, it gets better. While some people are privileged enough to be given specifics on why their accounts were blocked, I was left completely in the dark. My account was purely personal and had no commercial intentions, yet I found myself the target of some unknown hacker. How delightful.

    And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I discovered that I can’t even use my regular phone number or email address to create a new account – because why make things easy when you can make them more complicated and frustrating? The cherry on top of this whole debacle. Utterly hopeless and infuriating, isn’t it?

    1. I swear it’s as if I wrote this! The exact same thing just happened to me and the name the hacker used was Lyli Collins. I lost my personal and business accounts…same as yours…both disabled. Were you able to recover yours?

  7. Same here. Someone has hacked my 19-year-old Facebook account and changed my name to “Elizabeth Hurley”, violating some Facebook community standards. And now Facebook has disabled my profile without a warning. The worst-case scenario is that the Help Center doesn’t even allow me to submit an appeal. It appears, we cannot review the decision to disable your account. Your Facebook account was disabled because it did not follow our community standards. (We have already reviewed this decision, and it cannot be reversed.) As a result, I’m in a big bind because I have no way of proving my innocence. I have tons of memories and accomplishments loaded on my Facebook. I feel like Facebook purposely does this to old profile holders to save their space. Shame on you, Facebook.

  8. Same thing happened to me after running an application of OpenAI. They removed all my emails and phone numbers. And started running ads through some of my pages. Fortunately 1 of them they couldn’t so I started again. Immediately when I saw that Meta Business msged that my ad is live (at the same time others have been rejected) I contacted Facebook, we had a chat, also they called me after some hours from their team in India. The next day they posted stuff in marketplace. Despite I had changed the password this happened again, so I will format my PC because no antivirus found anything. The application name on the Task Manager was WindowsOffice something. I am afraid for my pages. I will put more people as admins in any case.

    1. Yes, please let us know how you were able to get in touch with them, there appears to be no way to do so. My personal page and business pages are all disabled…so frustrating!

  9. Exactly same think happens to me. No even any notification that someone logged from new device. Or some warning, that the account make some violation. Just banned straight away.

  10. Same thing, 10. February 2023 facebook, instagram, all gone.

    They let me download copy of my activity for the moment and from that file I learn that hacker was from Vietnam, because he changed my phone number to Vietnamese number. When i saw that number, I’ve tried to find that number on WhatsApp and I found the person. Asked him what’s going on and he sand me the middle finger picture.

    I even found that specific cookie was used for logging and changing my information, after I was blocked. So will see what is going to happen.

    Danilo from Serbia, Europe

  11. I was hacked on 12/10/22. It was weird never heard of anyone being hacked this way. I got a FB notification soeone is trying to signin on an A50 phone (which happens to be a phone i had 6 months prior) from Pasedena, CA. I’m in Oregon and have not returned to CA in over 11 yrs. I clicked not me and changed my password. Never got an email about changing my password from FB. Then an hour later, I got another FB notification that someone in Simi Valley, CA is trying to sign in. I again said, not me. I again changed my password. At this point, I was concerned. Then a few hours later, i get a FB notification that someone accepted my friend request. I know i have not sent out any friend request in a year. I go to the app and fi get a notification, that my instagram account, (which i do NOT have one) was diabled for violating community standards. Somehow, FB allowed someone with a different name connect their instagram to my FB! There is absolutely zero help from FB. I have lost my entire chronic pain, depression and support groups and its devasting. Ive since created a new FB, same name but because its new I can’t get into alot of groups. my friends haven’t accepted my new friend request because they probably think its a hack. I have several business pages and groups that i was the sole admin for. I have one i had put my daughter on as an admin but for some reason she can’t add me as an admin. Its just sucks

        1. Hi Jessica,
          How did you manage to get it back? Can you guide me through the process? Its almost a month for me and can’t find any solution.

          Thanks in advace.

        2. OMG…how? Will not go into the details but lost my account because of a hacker in early June (2023). Have tried every way I can think of to restore my account. Nothing works. Email, phone #, friend’s names…nothing. How? I would be forever grateful for some insight.

    1. My Facebook was hacked 5-12-23. I’ve done everything humanly possible to get it back. It’s been devastating for me. I live alone and really relied on Facebook and messenger and Facebook dating where I had some important connections.
      I don’t believe I will ever get my account back. It’s very devastating.

  12. Looking like im in the same boat too, got the same “we are reviewing” thing. 16 years of being a customer and treated like this is pretty disgusting tbh. No customer service portal, nothing. The stupid thing is you can’t properly log in to your account so I can’t change the password to ensure that they can’t get back in / respond for me…

    1. I am experiencing the same exact thing. I had no idea but some Iraq terrific stuff and a naked Asian lady doing “stuff” all posted in another language that I don’t speak was posted. I got an alert was asked to verify myself. Account was open just restricted I was able to change password and profile but couldn’t comment or run ads, then they shut the page down again for the 2nd time. I was asked to verify again, page back up, then another request, then another saying they were disabling the account. I disagreed with their decision they decided to disable it. I had one more appeal, if they review it again it will be permanently disable it. I got a notification saying that my account was disabled in error and that it was being fixed. The next day it was disabled. I can’t even start a new page it has tagged my phone number and email forbidding me access to Facebook and I didn’t do anything wrong. I post my business network all of my connections and real estate content gone. They are treating me like the criminal. I don’t think that they are reviewing these accounts. I run ads through meta for my business most or all of my print marketing, website, have my Facebook page that has been disabled on it, you can’t even talk to a person..it’s terrible service especially as a long time customer and small business owner. It’s costing me money.

  13. This happened to me today. I received two notifications on my business account that I had violated standards. I immediately checked that page, and found nothing out of the ordinary. (Unless it was posted after being hacked and FB had already deleted the post). The second notification said my account would be suspended and I had to go through the process of disputing it, which included providing a photo of my license. As worried as I was about doing that, I did so because I had a lot of important photos and information on both my personal and business page. I have not heard the final decision yet. It’s absolutely ludicrous that the person reviewing can’t easily figure out that you were hacked when all your other posts are completely normal. I’m devastated to think I might not get my photos back. This is about 15 years worth of memories potentially gone forever. 😖😢

      1. Hi, any luck on yours yet? I heard we have 30 days to resolve it or the account is gone. I’m hoping you got yours back! Mine was taken over by a hacker on 3/5…. so I’m just getting started trying to figure this out. SO pissed!!

      2. Facebook did not reply to my several contact form requests, and in urgency. No response whatsoever. I lost my husband last year, my dog six months ago, and now I lost my Facebook family memories and friends, to what looks to be a Vietnamese name, but who knows. Im’m disable, deactivated and its been three weeks. They are not getting back to me by now. Facebook customer for over 15 years, and no consideration whatsoever.

      1. I am in the same boat. Facebook personal and business suspended AND my business IG since they are all linked. Still waiting on decision. Disgusted and frustrated that there is zero customer support to help in these matters.

    1. I was hacked in early february. Its been a nightmare since. Every time i secure my account, the hacker changes the password and logs me out. I get emails from facebook telling me my password was reset, which I didn’t do. When I do manage to get into my account, I put my account into deactivation mode and the hacker reactivates it. I have no recourse and no hope. I can’t get no help either. The hacker has literally thrown me off facebook. I am so depressed I have to drag myself out of bed every morning. I uninstalled the facebook app off my phone. No use having it on anymore.😭😭😭

    2. Same thing just happened to me – I was hacked – I recovered my account with ID – to find out I was banned for sexually explicit content!! I’m a 60 year old grandmother, I’ve never been banned for anything – years and years of memories lost. Shameful – facebook is lawless and incompetend. No customer service at all.

      1. I’m a 66 year old grandmother and had the exact same thing happen to me. When I tried to prove my identity it saidthere was no one to review it due to COVID-19. Ridiculous! Now I can’t keep up with family.

      2. I am 60 years old too and devastated that my account was hacked and disabled and I’ve tried everything to get it back.

  14. Looks like I might be the next victim with a disabled Facebook account. Also a 13-year member. Pretty sure they will not unlock my account because based on image they changed “my” profile picture to, I can’t imagine the extent of disturbing, graphic, racist content that was posted triggering the violation of community standards notice I was presented. I am sick to my stomach.

    1. BECKY KUBALA RUZICKA

      same thing happened to me on Monday January 23. I have been trying to get in touch with facebook, uploade DL, etc, and nothing will go through. Why on earth after all these years of being on Facebook would I post a horrible picture like the hackers put on my Facebook page. And now I can’t even get back on? how can I get all of my pictures, etc. SO SO unhappy and that once again the bad people get by with hurting others.

  15. Me too.

    I started my personal account and then my business account over 10 years ago and have to admit that I haven’t used it much over the last 5 years. Late last year, maybe in October. I noticed that my account was disabled. I thought maybe it was due to lack of use. I asked for a review and got the “we’re busy” response. So, I waited, thinking that all would be fine. I got very ill over the Holidays and didn’t even want to look at a screen much less deal with things like this. So, about a week ago I checked into it again only to find that it had supposedly been reviewed again and disabled again. Finally, tonight after months of non-use, I tried to use our Oculus VR. It needs to be updated to a Meta account which means logging into my Facebook account! I suppose that I could set up the Oculus again, but then I would lose all of my apps which I spent a lot on. If there’s anyone out there that can help, I would really appreciate it!

    1. Did you get your situation resolved? I also have an Oculus that I connected to my Facebook account 2 years ago.

      My Facebook account was hacked earlier this week and now my account is locked and I have no access. I decided to try contacting the Meta/Oculus site and was able to actually speak with a human being.

      He was not able to get my access back to my Facebook account. (of course..) But, he was able to see that once I lost my account access, the connection to my Oculus info(games, apps, etc) was basically severed. So, the hackers had no access to it.

      We were able to create a new login and all of my settings and apps in the headset were available. A huge relief.

      Now, if only the main Meta/Facebook customer service actually existed.

  16. This exact thing happened to me this past Nov! I have been reaching out to every connection possible and no one can help. I’m devastated as I lost all my memories that were attached to both FB and Instagram, including so many messages and pictures for some clothes friends and family who have died including some of my friend’s children who have passed, devastating! I tried setting up a new account just this weekend and in 5 min it was deleted. Meta should be ashamed – if they can disable me that quick they should be able to look at my history and see I have never posted ANYTHING even remotely close to something that would go against standards!

  17. Being fed up with this issue I created a website about it. ZuckBannedMe.com, pass it along. I plan to have a sign made and camp out in front of their NYC office to get some people to see it. Post your story in the comments!

  18. Same thing happened to me last Monday (Jan 16th). While I was asleep, someone hacked into my Facebook account, changed the name to some grind rock band and posted who knows what because I awoke to find my Facebook and Messenger accounts disabled due to policy violation and when I tried to appeal I got the same result – no petition allowed because it was already reviewed. Tried sending countless emails (since there is no one you can call) explaining my over 10 years of memories that were just lost and there is no remedy. It’s like we are faceless cogs to them, not genuine customers, and they just don’t care. If they *really* had reviewed the case, they would see over a decade of posts about family and friends and my cat and then suddenly something horrible out of the blue with a new profile name? Doesn’t take rocket science to see I was hacked. I guess I’ll have to start over as well, but won’t I need a new email address since facebook disabled the last account tied to it?

    1. They don’t care. I don’t they review it at all. I had my account for 15 years. Never once did I ask for a password reset but suddenly they get 35 requests from me asking to reset it. You would think they would see something is wrong and ask me what is going on. But no, they act like its nothing out of the ordinary.

  19. It is still happening my account was hacked on Nov 3rd and disabled by Facebook I immediately tried to get decision reviewed and had message that they could not review due to shortage of staff because of covid but that’s nonsense everyone is back at work I’ve also tried to start another and had that blocked as well now its over the 30 days and I’m getting the message that it cannot be reviewed not sure what to do at this point.

  20. The same thing happened to me and my small business. I was able to download all my pictures and posts using the “download your info” link on the facebook page where the “you’ve been suspended” message appears. I did the download and got a bunch of zip files which I could open and all my stuff is there. At least it’s not gone forever. I don’t know how long this link is visible but it’s been there for me since the account was suspended in late October. I know it’s not the same as having our account back but it’s something. Good luck. I have a question too. How do you create a new facebook account without it also getting suspended?

    1. Can you give us additional details of how you did this?
      What do you mean by “on the facebook page where the “you’ve been suspended” message appears.”?
      Where exactly did you see this through what specific steps to get there?
      Thanks!

  21. This happened to me last night, I’ve had my account since 2010…. All of the videos of my children and photos that are irreplaceable are gone?! My pregnancy pics, my precious memories? My friends that have passed including my foster mom and uncle who I can never be “friends” with again or see their posts?! I’ve been crying all night, it has played a huge emotional role on me!! The same message of violation of community standards, they changed my name, photo and birthday and password of course…. Ugh I don’t know what to do!

  22. I had an email about suspicious activity on my account at 4am (while sleeping) on the 3rd of October. At 4.04am I got a temp ban for “breaching community standards”. Appealed it at 8am and was given a permanent ban 10 minutes later. At 12pm I created another account using a different email address/pc/IP address and was banned 3minutes later, this time because I had two accounts. Boxing day and I still have no FB. Meta are an absolute joke

  23. I am quite appalled that Facebook couldn’t look into the issue better. It was Christmas Day when happened it to me. I laughed at first thinking it was a joke. But no, it wasn’t. Instead I Googled how to recover my Facebook page. First step- log into your account. Ya’ll, like what? I think its quite inconsiderate of Facebook to assume those who use this platform to connect with family and loved ones have their profile be completely wiped from the system. Such a waste of time for me. So lazy on their part. They are doing nothing to resolve this reoccurring issue.

    I gave my drivers license, but I simply wished I didn’t. It sounds like a mistake. Now, I am terribly regretful.

    Its probably time to step away from this platform so I simply won’t waste my time only for an obvious hacker to steal my account and be canceled one more time.

  24. This same thing has happened to me twice. I have now just given up on having a Facebook account. I cannot understand the fact that they just disable my account. My message said it was due to “child pornography”. Say what????? The last time this happened, the hacker also tried to use my credit card for advertising but it was expired. So Facebook actually sent me an email asking me to update my credit card…AFTER they had disabled my account!

    I also sent a pic of my driver’s license, (again, that was bothersome but I did it because I want to keep in touch with family all over the country) and they say Nope, can’t prove it’s your account, done, disabled, NEXT. Ridiculous! I won’t try to sign up again. It’s just unacceptable.

  25. Please report Facebook to the Better Business Bureau and Attorney General of California where their main office is located. I was locked out of my account on November 13, 2022 because they claim that there was “suspicious activity on my account” then a community standards on spam violation popped up from a comedy video that I posted in my group. I have tried to contact Facebook via live chat, email, and by phone with no success and I think that it’s unfair as I have been a member of Facebook since 2009 and have connected with a lot of family and friends plus shared a lot of pictures that I can not recover because my account is locked! I so pissed right now! 🤬😡

  26. This is currently happening to me. My account is disabled at the moment after these hackers have already posted horrible things on my account. There should be some way that we can contact Facebook regarding these repeated attacks??. I’m so stressed at the moment by being at risk of losing all my photos and memories of the past 13 years. My work accounts have also been hacked. I feel so violated, and worst of all, on my messenger account ( which I can’t log into, but you can see your profile picture) the hackers put the most putrid picture.

    I’m relieved seeing all of your posts, just to know that I’m not the only one going through this now.

    something needs to be done to stop these hackers from doing the same to other people

  27. This is horrible
    Same thing happened to me 2 days ago
    I’ve been a user since 2006, I’m a normal happy human
    So many memories lost, I’m so sad
    Comments from friends, no longer with us, list for ever
    It feels like a bereavement, it’s not an over statement
    Sounds OTT I know, but that’s how it feels
    So ridiculous that we can’t talk to a human to explain what has happened
    For me this is how it panned out …..
    Email says unusual login
    My reply says it wasn’t me
    Repeats of this
    Some Random code in the middle of the night (what am I supposed to do with that?)
    Then I get 16 emails saying ‘my video is ready’ half way through that an email from Facebook says account suspended
    I had to send up ID, but there is no box to give any explanations about what has happened (as some videos say there should be)
    Result- account permanently disabled !
    Tried to upload ID again (from work) with my name and photo but no, only one chance to upload ID
    Emailed hacked.com who said that the name on Facebook must match the ID you sent up and there is nothing you can do…….
    So folks if your birth name is eg Peter and your official ID is Peter, but Facebook profile is Pete, then change your Facebook name to Peter!!!

    This is so ridiculously frustrating, why oh why, can’t we speak to a human
    Why do we have to be the victims of some automated Bots!!!

  28. Just happened to me yesterday. Got a notification that said “So and So accepted your friend request”. I had no idea who that was. So I go into Facebook and remove him and immediately there was another guy. Within seconds there were 5 videos posted. I tried to delete the first one and it started playing while I was deleting and I’m going to need therapy for what I saw. Absolutely sickening. Facebook flagged them within a few seconds thankfully. But I’m totally locked out. I was able to get back in my account for a little bit to change my password and things but it’s deactivated again. When I try to appeal the screen tells me that the email doesn’t match. When I go to the option to enter the phone number it tells me that I can’t enter a phone number (even though the instructions say to enter the phone number or email linked to the account). It says the email isn’t linked to any Facebook account. So I have no way of appealing again.

    I also have a business and have been on personally and professionally for over 10 years. It’s devastating. My only hope is my biz page will get deleted with my personal page so it isnt sitting there orphaned so I can start a new one to build clients back up.

    I hate this.

  29. Yep happened to me today after 15 years, I have my business page and 5 strong groups as I am a DJ. I had 7,000,000 visitors last month but someone hacked me and placed nudes and there is nothing that I can do. My whole family was connected to me. But not any more

    1. Same after 15 years all my memories of my kids and life just gone. I got an email someone logged into my account .. I hit not me .. Changed password but it was to late. Now I am getting emails about payments of ads that were approved. Yet, I have been locked out and it says no one can see my page .. Well then why are these charges coming!? No one you can speak to ..people say “its just facebook” but its just the videos and pictures I want back .. I can live without my groups and games ..but my pictures breaks my heart

  30. Same thing just happened to me. Several businesses attached. No way to review, paid $900 to company to try and recover plus $500 Occulus Meta headset. Happened Thanksgiving morning. Been on Facebook since 2007. This sucks. I would love a class action filing against Meta!

  31. Not sure it’s of any help to anyone but the hackers didn’t / couldn’t change my Instagram password and I was able to disconnect it from our business manager by going into the Instagram app and changing it from a business account to a personal account. If you still have access to your Instagram you just need to go into your settings to do this.

  32. Disheartening to read that this has happened to so many people and Meta has done nothing to change their response. The same type of hack happened to me just two weeks ago on my dating anniversary with my husband. I have what’s important to me, here in real life beside me… but I’m still devastated to lose 17 years of memories, interactions, pictures, my business page, etc. Thankfully I didn’t have my finances tied into the account. I created a new account and that has been purged as well. I feel like they’re on a witch-hunt against me. It’s infuriating to have no recourse.

  33. This has just happened to me last night (November 27th 2022), word for word what you have described! I’ve had the account since 2006!!! I’m furious.

    I initially saw a message stating my account had been locked due to suspicious activity. I did all the questions etc, verified my phone number, uploaded my drivers licence (as you say why the hell they would need that). Then after everything they basically disabled my account because of a number of posts that were obviously not done by me.

    I have no option to restore my account either. I did find a help page where you can request a review but … and get this … when I clicked the button I got a message stating reviews can’t be done at the moment due to not enough staff because of the COVID pandemic!!! And they wonder why they’re hemorrhaging users. I’m going to just sit back now and watch Facebook MySpace itself

    1. On December 22,2022 a hacker has hacked in my account. I have had that Facebook account since 2009. I have done everything the Facebook security post has said to do. I have sent my state Id. The hacker told me if I want my account back pay him 200.00. Facebook need to do better because this guy is from Africa and I live in Texas.

  34. As mentioned by Dave on Sept 29th, I think we may have a case for a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT. There are A LOT of people out there that were affected and they are not hard to find.

    FB has cause damage to my business and is continuing to allow someone to post on my business pages even after numerous attempts to contact them.

    Now I’m even unable to download my personal information, which I believe by law they are required to do.

    Im located in Canada. If there’s anyone else out there interested, I think we have something here…
    Please contact me or post here to gauge the interest…

    1. I had the exact same thing just happen last night while I was asleep. Woke up to find a bunch of emails stating my password had been changed. I tried to log in and saw a different profile “Lily Collins” as well as account being disabled. I have been trying all day to find resources from Facebook for some support to correct this. All their resources just seem to lead in a circle prompting you to “Log In” to your account……ummm I CAN’T!!! So frustrating! I am not even sure I want to bother creating a new profile. I am worried about my business account that is attached though. Trying to change passwords and such, nit sure if will even help! Facebook support is TERRIBLE!
      I am also in Canada.

    2. I am from uk my Facebook was disabled aswell 2 days ago , no way of getting it back I’m devistated 12 years of my babies members of my family who are no longer here , my aesthetics business ruined page still there aswell as my boutique but no way to access them either

  35. Same thing just happened to my husband, and he too uses his FB to advertise for business. There should be some compensation for this! Are their any attorneys seeing this that would be willing to take on the meta giant?!

  36. This exact thing happened to me as well. One night I got a notification that a log-in attempt was thwarted in Vietnam (I’m in California) and I tried to change my password but because I use FaceID I didn’t know it and my Autofill was incorrect, so I figured since Facebook thwarted the attempt based on location it was impossible they would hack me until I change my password in the following days.

    Fast forward to 24 hours later and I got a notifcation that someone who I didn’t add accepted my friend request, I went to their page, deleted it, thinking it was someone I mightve added years ago. Anyway then I get the notification that “My video was ready to view” even though I wasn’t on Facebook in hours, I clicked the notification and was instantly met with Violated Community Guidelines and my accounts been restricted. I instantly get the Facebook email about it, and I submit my ID the next morning.

    They denied the review and denied me access to my account. Even though the log-in data would clearly show I was hacked they didn’t do anything to help me and I can’t even send another review in because “they are low staffed due to COVID” and I already sent a review in once.

    Like everyone here my Facebook account holds precious memories and has friends and family added that are no longer with us and can’t be re-added. If I’m unable to regain access to my account I will never use the platform again, simple as that. They have log-in data that will clear my name but they refuse to check under the surface level of the report appeal. I’m absolutely destroyed, not even taking into account my personal Instagram which also holds the same sort of memories and follows from friends and family who have passed on, is disabled as well due to this malicious hack.

  37. First, me too. Mine started on October 26th of this year (2022) with a series of suspicious emails starting with this “We have approved your name change” on a business page that I did not request.. to “It looks like someone has accessed your account” to… “Your account has been suspended” with a link to appeal that was broken. Five days later the link worked and I went through the process including sending in a picture of my Driver’s License (yep, super comfortable doing that!) and then a notice on my FB page appeared that says they usually review cases within 24 hours but they have a lot right now so it may take longer. (Do we have a problem FB? Apparently.) It’s day 23 and it’s still in review and I expect it won’t end well. I did get a temporary notice on my page that I had restrictions because of child nudity posts and to click the link to fix it….the link was broken. 12 years of posting my daughters wedding, then granddaughter cute pics and posting my Zazzle designs on my business pages and suddenly I’m the one that posted that filth? No. I’m a 62 year old Internet Savvy Retired Publicist (now designer for fun) Mormon Grandmother. No history of that at all.

    Early into this mess I did a lot of research and found some emails that I confirmed DO go to Facebook ([email protected]). I was so upset that my account had been used for the worst kind of filth and that a hacker got past my two factor authentication, that I wrote to that email and threatened a lawsuit. (Not my usual style) This affects my reputation both personally and in business, not to mention that my followers were subjected to THAT. Still in the process of locating an attorney. The notice on my Facebook page switched back to my account being in review within 30 minutes of sending my threat to sue. I also requested a read receipt when I sent the original email and I got one back. So someone is reading the emails. You can check Whois for Facebook to confirm the email.

    I still receive notifications from Facebook in my email and now I forward them to the [email protected] email and tell them “If I get the notifications that I can’t access because your system allowed a hacker past my two factor authentication, then so do you. Day (insert number here) in review.”
    When you hit reply, remember to change the email address to
    appeals @fb.com. I send about 25 notifications a day as I receive them.

    I do agree with the author of this blog post. It is their platform and they can do whatever they want. HOWEVER, as soon as they take money from us to promote our business pages and build our follower base they have a liability if their system fails an account and it is accessed by a hacker. That being said, you could spend thousands and get next to nothing in return legally, UNLESS a law firm decides it’s worth a class action. (And no I’m not typically that girl, but is a loss of revenue, and maybe even a loss of reputation is motivating to become exactly that girl)

    Every other social media platform (except maybe TikTok because I haven’t actually checked) has a way to connect with a person for customer service. It is the only responsible way to do business.

    I feel so strongly about this I am campaigning for the Morgan and Morgan Law Firm ForThePeople.com – to pick this up as a class action. If you go to their site and submit an explanation, someone will call you and you will likely be turned down. But if enough people do, they will take notice. I hate feeling victimized by a social platform that sells the idea we “need” them for everything we do in life and then dismiss us without due diligence. If you feel the same way about this, campaign with me at their website ForThePeople.com. They specialize in social media.

    Lastly if you are still in review and want to your information, you can go to Facebook, be sure you are logged in and you still see that review notice, then up on the right is a down arrow, click that and you can download your information.

    I also sent a complete layout of what happened, a physical copy of all the emails, to the physical address of Facebook by registered mail. That address is:
    Meta Platforms, Inc., Attention: Community Support, 1 Facebook Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025
    Let’s not get so Internet minded we forget snail mail. Fight the good fight anyway you can.

    And let’s not even get started if you have an Oculus linked to Facebook. That took 6 hours on Oculus support to get disconnected and then 21 days to actually happen. UNLINK now if you are not in this mess. You only need a Meta Account now, not a FB account.

    Sad to find out FB doesn’t live up to their hype.

  38. Everybody claiming the were helped by this and that most times names mentioned are fraud yes i said what i said.. thanks to the one legit man i discovered after so much stress and money wasted bohdanbohdan93 @ mail . ru or could need his whatsapp +998880092846

  39. Pingback: Facebook Has Been Broken for At Least Two Years – FB DIsabled Me

  40. Hi Laura
    How did you go? There’s talk of a class action over on Reddit, and an entire topic on it. I’m horrified to see how old some of these dates are, and how long it’s been a known problem. We are still being deactivated and defrauded over a year later (from just this blog post)

  41. I have the same problem. I try to recover my account with no success. It says, it sent me an email code of which I never receive and just stuck out of my account.

  42. LITERALLY!!! Just happened to me. Same story line as everyone else. This is complete crap. 15+ years down the drain! Something has to be done. Anyone that is filing any kind of action, I will be happy to be apart of it. Just Furious!!!

  43. This exact same thing happened to me last week! My account is 13 years old, and I run a nursing home ministry through a FB group. Not only am I sick about losing 13 years of memories and pictures of my kids, now I am unable to communicate with ministry donors in the middle of our Christmas giving season. It’s crippling our ministry, and there’s no recourse with Facebook. I’ve tried everything, done everything Facebook asked me to do, and all I get is a notice that my account is going to be deleted in 23 days. I’m angry and sick over this.

  44. I have had my Facebook, instagram, messenger disabled and have been told I have not complied with community standards. Impossible to appeal it. I visit the FAQ page and it’s all automated responses. 24 hours after this happened my bank card is been used for Facebook and my bank reported it as suspicious activity. Facebook say their decision is final but think it’s ok not to tell me what I have apparently done. This is my business and someone is trying to sabotage it and no one cares or wants to help. I have not violated any guidelines but Facebook are not interested. This should be illegal and would love to take it further but have no idea what to do. Can anyone help !!!!!!!!!

  45. Same here. I lost my personal page with almost 3000 followers, my group with 1200 members, my business page, and two Instagram pages. I can’t even download my info so I have lots over a decade of writing and photos and Meta DOESNT CARE. They enable the hackers! They are also now sending me over $500 worth of bills for the hackers ads. 😡😡😡

  46. Even for the recognition THOMAS, thomaskent885 at gmail com skills is so underrated at least by most tech fans in general. I mean I get that there is stamina and all that involved in things like he does but being able to stand so far away and have the ability get the information needed with high speed as expected to hit it perfectly with a paddle just over the net is extremely impressive.

  47. My personal FB account hacked late Aug. Recovered within a couple of hours after stumbling through the process. Moments after recovery, I realized I no longer had admin access to my FB business page. Still don’t today (10/22/22). I have poured countless hours trying to work every angle possible getting Meta to resolve with no success. I even went as far as mailing letters to various people in their leadership. Nothing worked and nothing will I’m convinced. Going to focus on other social media and marketing channels for my business. I’m stuck with a dormant FB business page. Can’t post to it. Don’t want to fire up a new FB business page and confuse my customers. Incredibly disappointing and frustrating. And a good lesson learned. Best of luck with all of you out here dealing with similar ordeals.

  48. My wife was also banned. I don’t know what might have been posted to her account because it was disabled before we got a chance to look. She did get billed from Facebook for ads in Vietnamese Dong after payment was declined. The credit card used wasn’t ours. (There are several articles about FB ad scamming rings operating out of Vietnam.) Of course, we have no way to get insight into those ads or contact FB to contest the billing, not that we think they would actually pursue trying to collect it at this point.

    There is a good discussion about this issue at https://emilycordes.com/facebook/

    This person got her account reinstated after posting about the issue at Hacker News. There is a link to it at her site. For people who use FB for business it might be worth posting about it there.

    As people point out, Facebook has become the de facto town square for many people, which is what they want. It’s how many of us run businesses, engage with groups and clubs, and even with our local governments. To have this taken away with no warning can be devastating. Facebook has a moral and ethical responsibility to allow people to access their accounts after hacking incidents and use the platform as intended.

  49. Probably Facebooks policies are killing them. My account was hacked last year by someone uploading a disgusting video or photo. I was sent an email stating I broke a violation of the Community Standards, then threatened me with possible legal action. I replied to support and a few other avenues to dispute, even (reluctantly) supplying my drivers license, and then they never got back to me thus permanently deleting 14 years of my family photos and stories after 1 month of me first being notified. Facebook was important to me as it kept me in contact with my family and friends, to which now I have now I have been cut off. After much research I found thousands and thousands of people who’s accounts where hacked and then permanently deleted for the exact situation (FYI – your Instagram will also be permanently deleted) ….it’s extremely frustrating. Facebook’s support/dispute procedures are obviously flawed, you are not able to talk with anyone, or contact anyone…in Facebook’s eyes you are guilty without providing proof or evidence. Way to go Facebook!

  50. On June 26, 2022 I received notice that my FB profile page was being disabled due to community standards issues. It would be permanently closed after 30 days if I did not refute.
    I had been hacked by MC Tran Than who set up another profile under my name. I believe he also impersonated FB by requesting documentation from me. I am a 71 year old woman who has been on FB for almost 20 years and I was very flustered and naive. He was able to hack my credit cards charging over $13,000 . I have had to close all accounts, etc. I also administered a page and group for my animal rescue which had over 2700 followers… all gone now. I tried every possible way to contact FB to no avail. After 5 months I have accepted that 20 years of work for my rescue is gone but I keep getting emails addressing me as MC telling me how many notifications I am missing (100’s). If FB closed my account why am I still getting emails… it hurts me every time I see this.

  51. Happened to me yesterday while I was attending my daughter’s wedding. So sad to not be able to participate in sharing her happy news. I’m not going to try and make another account because it will probably just happen again, and I don’t want to put myself through this in the future. Best to just rip the band aid off. I would be interested in a class action lawsuit against Facebook though if anyone wants to organize one.

  52. This literally just happened to me an hour ago and I’m completely devastated. 17 years worth of memories gone. I don’t understand how they can justify basically stealing people’s lives without giving them the chance to prove it wasn’t them. There’s no way in hell they actually reviewed the account. It was flagged and disabled in less than an hour. I’m pregnant and I didn’t even get to announce. I have no way to share my news with all my friends and family. Plus they disabled my IG as well. You can’t do this to people, I fucking hate it here.

  53. Same happened to me. Someone hacked my account, I was out of town at the time. When I got back home, I tried to access it, reset password etc and had to upload my ID. I sent three different forms of ID and was still denied, permanently disabled. So frustrating, as Fb is how I grow my travel business which had suffered since Covid. Not sure I will ever return to Fb, thinking of trying different options.

  54. The same time hung happened to me last week. Years of photos and memories of my family and children. I’ve never violated any policies and someone hacked me and posted lewd videos. They wiped out my checking account and hacked my Instagram as well. There HAS to be something we can do. Class Action? Anything?

  55. Just happened to me as well. Can’t access old account and cant even create another account – even if I use a different name phone number and email it seems to know its me somehow.

    This is really frustration. What is more some third party sites that I ‘Logged on using Facebook’ to won’t let me access either.

    No way to contact Facebook.

  56. This just happened to me yesterday. (10/10/22) lost both my Facebook and instagram that was linked. I am furious and devastated.

    Facebook would not let me explain that I was hacked, after uploading my ID they told me I was ineligible to use Facebook because of the inappropriate things the HACKER posted. And my instagram is lost by proxy.

  57. Same thing happened to me, exactly like everyone else. Just feel hopeless. Facebook has no one to speak with. It’s just algorithms and electronic responses. I was a victim and they treat me like the criminal.

  58. The only comforting thing about reading this blog and all the comments is knowing I am not alone. The fact that we have had our accounts disabled due to violating community standards is awfully ironic, considering the hackers have violated all of us. My heart goes out to all of you who this has happened to. The silver lining may be that at least I am no longer supporting such a terrible company who aligns themselves with our overreaching government.

  59. Isn’t it possible to locate someone by their IP address? If so, then each of us has proof of the IP address that created the post that created issues for each of us—I’m not understanding why more can’t be done.

  60. Just happened to me. I’m devestated. All my photos and comments. Many from people that have died. I am so stressed.

    Facebook – Please fix this and all of our accounts.

  61. this just happened to me while i was actively using my facebook/instagram accounts. first i got an email asking if i requested to change my password, which i replied “no”. Then, as i tried to ‘like’ an instagram comment, i got a message that my account was suspended as well! after some investigation as to what was going on, i found out my facebook account was also suspended for inappropriate use per their community standards. i have no idea what happened although facebook stated something about sexualization of children. great. anyway, after uploading my drivers license, i received an email from facebook that i am ineligible to use facebook and that for safety and security reasons, they can’t disclose why. now i’m wondering if the police are gonne show up at my house! wow, just wow. how are they not held to certain responsibility for keeping people’s accounts safe? facebook/instagram/meta should be sued! so, after reading your comment, i went ahead and contacted paypal to let them know my accounts were hacked and to deauthorize payment links between accounts as you mentioned. ugh….

  62. All of these stories are horrible. We are the victims and yet they do nothing to help us. The worst part is if you use the “Login with Facebook” on sites like Door Dash, Instagram,… they are all shut down. What are we supposed to do? I feel like I am all alone!

  63. Same here. Everything disabled including Messenger contacts and conversations due to someone hacking in and posting an isis terrorist threat in mine. I would be interested in joining in a class action lawsuit as well if this is able to be organized. So upset.

    Thank you

    1. I was hacked similarly in the middle of the night September 23rd and can’t get to Facebook to have them rethink their decision. THe hackers also got a hold of my credit card attached to my account and used it for $250 in fb advertising- I was able to cancel my card and report this. I also reported to the governement as a fraud report. But I too was a hoest happy fb user for 14 years- work and family and have lost everything- Facebook doesn’t have a proper channel to aid their users inrecovery- they don;t give reasons but tell you that you are no longer able to use Facebook- I’m angry and sad bc I’ve lost so many memories and business opportunitues as well…

      1. Same exact thing happened to me! I lost my brother 2 years ago and I lost all our memories and photos and FB won’t even let me contact a human to see about getting my info from my page. 😩😩

      2. This just happened to me. My IG and Facebook are linked so they both got taken down. Both sites won’t let me report the issue saying my phone number/username/email are invalid. I’ve had FB for 17 years, I’m just sick over it.

      3. SAME HERE! I had a daughter that passed away in 2015 and all the pics her friends tagged me in and all of my Memorial posts to my daughter on her FB profile are all gone!!!!!!!!!! I am so devastated!!! Plus I had 15 years worth of contacts and Friends and had never even received a slap on the hand from FB in all those years!!!! My hacker nearly managed to steal $4k from my Business Bank acct which was tied to FB. But since my bank was able to reverse the transaction, the police say no actual crime was committed and won’t file a police report.

      4. Just happened to me last night .I feel also it is my reputation. I wish there could be a class action suit. Is there a way to get another Facebook page up.

      1. This just happened to me as well. It is crazy how many people’s accounts have been hacked by people. I got my first notification then was going to change my password but got busy. Then when I get the second email someone was trying log in I went to change my password and it said my account was disabled. I provided a copy of my driver’s license. It just crazy how they can’t verify it is you. I have never been even suspended for any activity. This seems to be a common them in the past few weeks.

    2. This just happened to me as well. Exactly the same. I don’t know what was posted on my page, but it was enough to get it permanently disabled before I could even wake up and see all the emails from Facebook suggesting someone may have accessed my account. That’s the frustrating part! They KNEW my account was hacked and that I wasn’t responsible for whatever horrible things were posted by the hacker.
      Now I have lost not only my Facebook page but also my Instagram business account that I spent over 5 years building!

      If anyone pursues a class action lawsuit, sign me up! I am so angry and frustrated and sad…. I can’t believe I am being held responsible for something I didn’t do—and not even knowing what it was!!

      Now I am afraid creating a new account will result in them finding me and disabling that one too! Ugh.

    3. Same happened to me on Saturday night – theve took all my accounts down and give no answers. They gave ALL the replies that are in this thread. When I search my Instagram it seem like they have completely removed it already. Rediculous when you use a platform for 20years (pretty certain I was one of he first people on the platform and then they wipe ur account and don’t give you the opportunity to tell them the situation) – they let you get to the section to upload images and stuff but then when you hit send it give ya some covid BS and lack of staff. Whats all that about. Just how many people is this happening too?

    4. Same here. I have been sharing my family photos and updates for 15 years and then boom I am erased all because of a hacker! Please add me to the class action lawsuit if that happens!

    5. Me too 🙁
      Woke up to numerous emails from Facebook saying I had attempted to change my password, accepted friend requests, uploaded videos of illegal content, attempted to increase my ad budget on my business page. Facebook then permanently disabled my account! No further explanation. I even sent ID reluctantly as Facebook asked me too, I can no longer access my business account as I am the only admin. No way of contacting Facebook at all. So angry and upset 😭

    6. Im inthe same situation.
      After FB, the hacker also hacked my email & deleted all important folders. Renaming them as dumb bitch, all of this halo ends after he had placed an order on my eBay & I caught it in time to call eBay & have the order cancelled.

    7. Same thing happened to me in Oct. I had a backup email that said someone tried to sign in under a different devise. Also, I had a friend request, which I never accept until I see who the person might be, I clicked and then it seemed like it all shut down. A violation of community standards. One of my business pages is gone, the other is there but I can’t get into it. I’ve had this for over 9 years. The saddest thing about all, is I lost my son last year and all the memories that pop up and messages from him are gone. Yes, I’ve sent the ID and the info they requested but no luck. I then made another one, they locked me out of it saying I had 2 accounts. Has anyone had any luck with this situation?

    8. Same thing here, account disabled and 2 days later PayPal charge £200 for Facebook ads. Can’t access business page, and no other admins, so nothing I can do

    9. Me too, Cher. It happened to me and I’m going crazy. I had 4 business pages and had just run an ad campaign that I cant follow up with. I even opened a new account and after getting 385 users, they wanted to do an “ID” check so I’m out again. I want to join a class action suit. [email protected]

    10. This happened to me in August. I haven’t ever been restricted before. I had messenger attached to my FB account, so I locked out of using messenger. I don’t live near any of my family, but I stayed connected. Sadly enough, after trying to contact FB in every way possible, I have gotten nowhere!!
      I did nothing wrong, and if they would would look at the IP addresses it’s obvious it wasn’t me. If anyone can help me, I would greatly appreciate it!
      I’m amazed that so many people have had terrible trouble, and FB is so big they don’t care!!! What other companies could get away with this kind of conduct??

    11. I would definitely be interested in this. It seems very strange that so many people are all having their accounts hacked in exactly the same way

    12. Jennifer Anderson

      Same here! I have tried everything to get my account back. It’s awful that there is no one to help you retrieve all your memories and my business page as well!

    13. Same here, was being hacked reported the hacker but I was banned instead. But my messenger is still up for some reason, there was an old acct they changed email, etc. I told FB who it was and she still has all 15 of her accounts up then sends me messages asking “So what’s it like not having social media” Never go back on there again!

    14. I was hacked yesterday by some insane person in Kosovo, they posted all kinds of horrid porn all over my page and my two businesses, and Facebook banned me. Me. Twenty years of Facebook and advertising my businesses, etc. and I get the “decision is irreversible and final” message. I am so depressed over it today, all those memories, contacts, business blog and clients gone. No recourse. So upset.

    15. Same exact thing here I am just lost and wish someone could help me I just need to get my business page back. I’m losing money every day and it’s still alive and active and running but I can’t access it. Does anybody know how I can do it? I can’t get anybody to respond to me or anything, and the same exact thing happeneI just need to get my business page back. I’m losing money every day and it’s still alive and active and running but I can’t access it. Does anybody know how I can do it? I can’t get anybody to respond to me or anything.

    16. rebecca viebrock

      This just happened to me yesterday evening as well and I was hoping someone knew of a class action suit we could join. This is terrible

  64. Facebook’s approach is absolutely appaling Guilty without even telling you what of their rules you have meant to have broken. How would Mr Zuckenberg feel if The Police arrested him but would not tell him what he is accused of and then say due to security but thank you for your understanding.
    Facebook justice is no justice at all.

    1. The same has happened to me in the last few days. I think I even know who has hacked me. How is this fair, Facebook do not even give us our chance to voice our concerns. They can not tell us what we have done that warrants this due to “safety and security”. Yet I know that this has been done to me to sabotage my business and no one cares or wants to listen !!!

  65. So I figured out what happened to my account. It’s a scam and it’s pretty common. It’s a two part scam. Pretty devious. The first part is breaking into your account and posting lewd content that’s so bad it forces Facebook to permanent ban you. What that does is leaves you powerless to get into the account and make changes, report problems, etc. The scam part, is what they set up before posting the lewd content. They use your bank account or PayPal info you have on file (this info is in your FB account if you’re utilizing Facebook marketplace to sell/ship nationwide)and set up an ad campaign for whatever product or service they’re peddling. The only recourse you have is to contact your financial institution to report it and have them fight it. Right now I’m waiting on PayPal to get back to me and deauthorize the payment link between my PayPal account and Facebook. Would strongly encourage everyone/anyone to change your password and change it frequently. As of this posting I have 6 charges all of them between $2 and $5. The little bit of research I’ve done on this already this morning, I’ve found that this is a common problem, has been for a few years, and Facebook has done, and continues to do nothing to fix it or help people affected by it.

    1. They are exploiting the forgotten password function, changing your password doesn’t help, and they do not need to access your email for the recovery code. People are getting done with 2 factor authentication. There’s literally nothing you can do once they have your email.
      As you say the purpose is to tank your account so you cannot stop them advertising on your credit card. It’s wholly absurd to me that FB consider it legal to run adverts and charge you while your account is disabled. The T&C is that you authorise the advert and subsequent payment, that would be very easy to challenge in court.
      We all need to get together and do that

    2. Same thing has just happened to me. I was able to get PayPal to refund the charges and cancel future payments but still crickets from Facebook. I am not giving up though. I am determined to get my stuff back

    3. The exact same thing has just happened to me. They ran up £5000 of ad spend on my credit card. Facebook support have been completely useless.

  66. Similiar situation
    Thing is, Facebook even sent me an email at 324am in the morning saying someone (even gave me info like IPhone with Verizon and IP Address) hacked my page. Then they sent me an email that someone changed my phone # to an overseas #, and at 336am, they disabled my account due a post regarding child exploitation. They KNOW I didn’t post it and STILL disabled my account!
    I have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and also a complaint with the local Menlo Park BBB (where they are located) and of course, no response yet!
    I’m currently looking for an attorney who wants to take them on for a class action suit, as it seems this has started to happen to a TON of people the last few months

    1. I too lost my account on Oct 1 due to hackers posting a video of child exploitation. I also received alerts, etc. from Facebook, regarding having my account compromised in the middle of the night. Facebook’s automated review systems don’t take these situations into account, and sadly I don’t think they care.

    2. Nicole Sebrasky.

      I’d be interested in the class action lawsuit as well. Sane thing happened to me. 13 years of memories & friendships gone. Business lost. Contacts ended. I’m devastated!

    3. Dave- let me know if you find a lawyer that will take this on. I am also a victim to this and extremely frustrated that there is no one to talk to about this. Every time I try to reach out to FB in their help center , I get the message- because of coved, no one can review your case right now- or something to that affect.

    4. Unfortunately this just happened to me the morning of Oct 7. I was working and noticed I had several emails popping up. I looked and there were 6 emails stating my facebook videos were ready to view. I had not been on facebook or uploaded any information. Then I noticed there was an email from facebook stating they needed my immediate attention. There was a request for my ID to verify my account. I reluctantly provided this. The next email was stating that I was suspended for violation of child nudity and sexual exploitation. There was a brief moment where a noticed popped up that someone had reported me for violation. I have not way of knowing who may have seen the information as they have not provided me with any real details and Lord knows if it really is that bad I don’t really want to be seeing it either or implicated in opening such things. I submitted for review but it stated that they may never actually do it due to restrictions caused by COVID…..
      I have a business account attached as well so its just hanging out there with no admin. Really should have thought that out better I guess but never would have thought this would be a things because I am as innocent and boring as they come.
      Two days prior to this I was scammed on the phone as well and they wanted money to pay fines as I supposedly had not shown for a court case regarding sex abuse of a minor. Coinsidence or maybe when I called the scam they decided they would retribute by making me look like an abuser.
      Facebook let me download info after two days of trying and there are clear IP address and location issues. I was not using a device located in Indonesia. I have never violated anything. Help is disabled and just sends me to the screen stated my supposed violations. No help and no actual people to plead to regarding this. At lease I have transcripts to look back on from the download. No one seems to be able to do anyting to clear innocent people of obvious violation to their reputation and rights. Also, who is in these videos? Are they animated? Are there real people and children being abused?

    5. Same thing happened to me on the 7th October can’t get through to anyone at fb. Its disgusting the way fb user are treated.

    6. Just happened to me this morning and I am crushed. I also have a friend that it happened to over a month ago. Did you ever find an attorney? Get anywhere with this?

    7. Omg!!!! This is exactly my story! Same times and everything! Even changed my phone number to +84. If you find someone doing a lawsuit please let me know, bc now everything I had is gone, plus allllll my businesses. Its been awful 😢

    8. The exact same thing happened to me . I am extremely upset because there is no recourse. I have lost all of the memories I jad on facebook with my Dad who passed away 2 years ago. I would love to join to fight this injustice. I am just sick about this.

    9. I am also a victim of being hacked and losing my account. Sat at home watching TV with my family and received a phone call from a friend. Asking me did I know that there was a post on my Facebook account with disgusting images. I went to log on and my account had been disabled. I called the police and they put through to the national fraud department. After reporting it they explained to me this a national problem and so many people have been victims of this crime. Memories of my children, wedding, birthdays all gone. I’m devastated for one of the images posted and two the impact it could of had on me and my family.

    10. The same happened to me. Facebook sent me an email saying someone had logged into my account from a named destination (so they could see it was not me), and my account was disabled literally 10 minutes later for a child exploitation post. No way to contact them directly…submitted my ID only to be told I am ineligible to have Facebook!! Had my account for 20 years

    11. Same think happened to me, this morning I found emails from FB to fix the issue. At 2:34 they disable my account. Later in the day I discovered at 2:33 a credit card charge for 99.99 also it’s a recurrenting monthly charge through FB. Scammers. The at 5:00 am I had another email from FB saying secure your account and reset password. Well that doesn’t work either. So 15 years and 4700 friends later I can’t get into my account! Unreal. Any help. I am assuming they will allow me in in 30 days. This is such BS since for a fact I was hacked and FB doesn’t allow us to even state a case.

      1. Meant to say at 2:33 am someone charged my card on FB … right at the same time 2:34 am FB sent me email disabling my account. Unreal

    12. I’d be interested in this class action lawsuit. The same thing happened to me and I use Facebook and Instagram for my business, having spent tens of thousands of dollars with them. I think we may have a case!

    13. Same !
      I got email from FB says
      Hi ur password have been change China,Hong Kong
      .
      Hi
      Ur phone number have been removed !
      .
      Hi
      Ur account have been disabled
      .

      I mean holy COW !!!!!

    14. Hello, I am a small business owner and same thing happen to me. It is so frustrating to know that i was a victim of being hacked on their platform but i am the one being treated like the criminal by being denied to ever use my ad account again. This is not right and something most be done.

    15. The exact same thing happened to me and my small business at the end of October. I would be interested in joining a class action suit.

  67. Hello – I am reading this and so people have had the EXACT same thing happen to them as I have gone through this week. I had two notifications from people I did not know that they had accepted my friend request which I had not sent, so I blocked them immediately and then I was blocked and ultimately banned – with no chance of speaking to anyone to rectify or verify!? Yup, felt helpless, so sent my ID in with much trepidation especially if hackers were in my computer. I have photos and memories of so much – of my parents who died just before and during COVID and so many other personal messages from people who are no longer with us. My posted messages were all positive, none about politics or anything remotely controversial and to have this happen is a total outrage. My message excuse for the banning was about violating the rules of Facebook. I have never been so angry and felt so violated.

    Can we all do something? Look how many people this is happening to – and FB has never read these complaints??? They are all over the internet so clearly it is a common problem. I don’t want to let Facebook and hackers take more from me so I am trying to reset and think of my priorities because I spent A LOT of passive time on FB and Instagram before this happened. I am engaging more in real life things – phone calls, in person interactions and more educational videos and podcasts as a positive. I feel smarter already. That is not to say I am not royally angered. But my hands are tied on it so there isn’t much I can do about it without a human to talk to.. I wonder if anyone has EVER been reinstated – I am not seeing that here which means they don’t have proper security to protect their users and they just wash their hands of it. I used to feel that Mark Zuckerberg was getting a raw deal from Congress in those hearings but now I know what a danger he and his company really are.

    I know this feeling and I am so sorry for all of you.

    1. This exact same thing happened to me. I got a notification saying I was no friends with someone that was across the world. I never requested or approved them. I immediately unfriendly them but they were able to take over my account and try to post lewd content so Facebook banned me. I disagreed with the decision and uploaded my ID but fb immediately permanently banned me. I used fb for about 15 years and never posted anything bad. I don’t even use profanity. They gave me absolutely no recourse. Then I created a new account and their recognition software was able to connect it to my old account so they shut my new account down too. It’s so frustrating because fb is treating me like I did something wrong but I did not. Clearly they can see that i was hacked and I didn’t do this but I guess I am banned for life.

    2. I had not thought of the friend request in my case until I read your post. My account had someone accept a friend request I new I had not sent several days before my account was suspeded for several severe violations. Maybe there is more to that part of it?

    3. Same here, my hackers changed my passwords email address and phone number and then posted a Chinese porn movie which got my Facebook and Instagram page disabled. I can’t see any credit or debit card transactions but like you I have been going around in circles for days trying to sort it. I don’t miss Facebook but would like all my photos and timeline back as it’s quite a good diary of life. Anyone got any further with this?

    4. IT also happened to me they deleted my facebook, instagram and what’s app, I was traveling with a group and not able to communicate or participate I photo exchanges. I also have an artist account that I no longer have access to because of this attack.
      I am completely devastated.

    5. Same here. Updating FB with the ID does not help at all. Felt very very disappointing. Thank you for sharing this and to Melissa as well for this blog. Now I know I am not alone and only aware that it is happening all the while >.< memories and photos with at least 12 years just diminished like that and it is very disheartening T.T

    6. Hello,
      I just recently had this happen to me, can you tell me what happened with your account. I would be willing to do what i need to get this fixed.

  68. This happened to me. Facebook has since completely deleted my account and sent an email that they can’t tell me why due to “safety concerns”. Lost a lot of memories and access to my small business IG and facebook page. I’m devastated. I’ll never sign up for a social media site ever again.

    1. This is exactly what happened to me. I opened a new account and all was fine and I just got the same message again. It affected my WhatsApp and Instagram.

  69. This just happened to me as well (9/19/2022). I wonder, since this blog post seems to be over a year old, are you recovering your business that you lost because of this situation? I feel like many of you had to start over at ground zero. Do you feel like you have recovered from this? It is scaring me to think that I may never recover the businsess I have lost.

  70. Me too. Lost access to my business insta and years of memories. Hopefully this becomes enough of a problem that they have to address it.

  71. It happened to me last month and I can’t get in touch w anyone from fb. I do a lot of animal rescue and all of my contacts as well as personal pictures are on here. I have no clue how to even find out what was ” against standards”. Every site I’ve been on that has links for forms to appeal or contact them for help says page is unavailable. I’m stuck. This is so unfair!! Is there any recourse???

    1. I also do animal rescue…have several businesses etc..My account was hacked with child porn videos and I was immediately disabled then banned.I have lost everything.. I cannot get back on Facebook even with another email address. I spent 15 years helping animals..It is all gone…I am devastated…not too mention my memories lost…There needs to be a class action suit..This is happening to thousands of people…Facebook is not protecting its users but victimizing them…

  72. This happened to me today. I was hacked twice within a month. They reinstated me the first time, and then disabled my account permanently the second time (with a business page attached). Years of photos, memories, business contacts, gone. You can’t get a response from them and they let you know that they don’t have to give you a reason. Hacker wins. I’ve lost sleep over this, so was glad to see this post and at least know that I’m not alone. Wishing all of you the best!

    1. This just happened to me too! I can’t believe that they can’t fix this and there is nothing we can do about it. Disgraceful!

      1. I am going through this situation right now! My account was suspended yesterday morning for child nudity and sexual exploitation. I couldn’t believe what I was reading!! I am a single mom, all I do is post pictures of my kids, family, and Also about my business. I then get a email saying there was a suspicious login near Chicago, IL. I live in Rhode Island… I then get numerous ones today saying ” Your facebook ad’s have been approved”!!! They are all in Chinese, I have no clue what any of them are saying. I have emailed them numerous times, sent in my license to Facebook and still waiting to hear back. This is going to hurt my business big time! I would like to get lawyers involved sense Facebook is doing nothing about this situation. Such bad business on their part! I am so sad to lose all of my pictures and videos. My youngest has autism and I have so many amazing videos of him and you can see his progress as the years go on. This is not ok that this has happened to so many!

  73. Same EXACT thing happened to me. Word for Word. Someone logged into my account, posted something against the community guidelines, I tried to appeal and Facebook told me the decision is final and I am permanently banned. I just lost my mom and now lost all of those memories. Just feels like being kicked when you’re already down. My business was on my Instagram with a following I’ve worked hard for and that was also deleted. All the pictures of my children, memories, videos, etc. it just seems so wrong they don’t care at all to try and resolve the issue. Shame on Meta.

    1. Same thing happened to me. Tons of memories of my late husband just gone. Funny things he would say that I would post, pics of things we did that I only uploaded to facebook.

      Someone hacked me and uploaded something against community standards and something illegal. I reported them to the internet crimes unit and my local sheriffs dept. I told Facebook I had proof of that. It’s almost like they could care less. They never researched to realize that the post didn’t come from my IP address. I am the mom of a deputy. Do they seriously think I would post something illegal?

  74. same thing just happened to me, my Instagram got hacked too. can we all keep tagging fb and meta untill they pay attention and hopefully get our accounts back somehow?

  75. Grateful to find your blog post and also it makes me feel hopeless. This happened to me today, I got no warning emails, nothing. Just the message that my account had been disabled. I have been crying for the past three hours. I am putting fraud alerts on all my credit cards and changing passwords on every single account that I can think of. I have so many memories and photos and messages on FB that I will never see again. Sigh.

    1. This happened to me last week. I am completely devastated. I am wondering if you found a way to get your account back? I’m so SO hopeful this isn’t gone forever.

    2. Same. I still can’t get on my account. My daughters 16th birthday was Sunday and I also record and post for memories her birthdays. Not anymore.

    3. OMG Jill, the exact same thing happened to me the day before your message here. I went to bed with a FB account. When I woke up it was disabled for violating community standards. I’m up to 22 days with the same message on my account. I’m sure they have ways of seeing that it was hacked and for 12 years nothing even remotely close to violating standards has ever been posted by me.

    4. It just happen to me. Lost my blog I worked years on and my companies Facebook access it’s all gone! They won’t help or listen. I’m so destroyed. I don’t know how to tell my boss our 25000 follower fb is gone forever I’ll probably get fired over it. I was hacked Sunday night and I couldn’t do anything I uploaded the id and I sent over the emails showing how someone overseas got in and then posted stuff. It wasn’t me.

    5. the same thing happened to me. wow all I can say is they have a security problem

      Roxanne
      Facebook is a joke. They need to be taken completely down

  76. This is currently happening to me. The FB account isn’t deleted… yet, but I am anticipating it. Hacker got into my account, spent at least $600 on ads, and got my account suspended with god-knows-what post. I am quite sure now the act of getting the account suspended is purposeful so that you can’t access your account again and possibly interfere with their activity on your business ad account, or see what they have done. What is most appalling is that Facebook gives you no way to communicate with them to tell them what has happened. They see activity on your account that breaches standards, and they suspend you and you can’t even tell them it wasn’t you! You are totally at their mercy, which it seems by all accounts here, is uncompromising in not being able to distinguish between a hacker and the actual owner of the site and will not even discuss the matter with you. How this is their actual process is beyond me, it’s the absolute worst dispute process imaginable (you can’t even dispute actually!). I am so appalled and dismayed that my account of 18 years will likely be deleted soon and I have no way of even opening a conversation with facebook about it.

    1. Yep happened to me today after 15 years, I have my business page and 5 strong groups as I am a DJ. I had 7,000,000 visitors last month but someone hacked me and placed nudes and there is nothing that I can do. My whole family was connected to me. But not any more

  77. Misery loves company. I don’t like to hear that everyone lost their photos and memories. But it helps me to know that I’m not the only one. FB and Insta are both gone thanks to a hacker. It’s scary and it makes you feel like you did something wrong and the authorities will knock on your door because you violated community standards. And it’s embarrassing when the hacker uploads disgusting photos. I have no idea what was posted…but it got both of my accounts erased.

    1. This just happened to me last week. I’m a teacher and afraid I could lose my job if whatever the hacker did is reported to the school district. This uis anarchy ! No way to defend ourselves.

    2. Me too Exactly the same. Made me feel like I did something wrong and I didn’t. So many memories just gone now. I’m so sorry for you.

      1. This exact same thing happened to me on 9/24/22. It was not me. I uploaded my ID and Facebook permanently disable my account. It’s so unfair because I was hacked and I have never posted anything bad. I hate that Facebook treats us like we are guilty and they give us no recourse to recover our accounts. They should be able to tell that hackers did this but they don’t care.

    3. Same happened to me, did you get a new account? I tried to set up a new account but now none of the apps work anymore even after deleting and reinstalling. Wondering of it’s the same for other people

  78. Same issue here – fortunately [?] it was a private account with no links to cards etc. It is hampering my contribution to a local charity I chair and in keeping track of a local dispute which impacts us.

    Any one got any where with FB since you posted your article? Any thoughts on how to set up a new account as FB seems to prevent the use of same / similar email accounts, birth dates and mobile numbers.

    I’ve made the point in my correspondence with them that the 2FA system they use is not robust enought and is passive in nature. Other systems I use require an second code to be entered via a different method before accepting an updated pasword. The FB one simply asks you to let them know if you didn’t make the change by which time it is too late.

    Good luck with rebuilding your business and you make some great points on backup and diversity in your video.

  79. Same thing happened to me. They won’t let me appeal as they say too much time has passed, but every time I tried to log in over the past month, I had to submit forms of ID and the prompt claimed that a review had been requested. Who knows what the hacker posted but they won’t even disclose that. I’ve been on Facebook since 2007 or so, and lost a ton of old photos and content there. Was a very active user and actually had some decent ad spend thruout the years, as well. Their algorithms that they must use to check these instances simply does not work well enough. Sad and disappointing that so many old photos are gone, and I basically submitted 4 different forms of ID for no reason.

  80. Same thing happened to me except it was inappropriate pictures of young innocent (you fill in the black) 🙁 soo disgusting and heartbreaking.. and people saw the pictures! I’m just sick about it. It makes no sense why people would want to do this

    1. Me too. It makes me sick as well. The worst of the worst and who knows who saw it. My friends? My followers on my business pages? I called attorneys because this potentially affects my reputation but no one wants the case. I would think this would be ripe for a class action. I’m not even a class action kind of girl, but THIS? I can’t stand the thought of it and absolutely no way to get in touch with FB personally.

  81. This is EXACTLY what just happened to me. It’s absurd. They send you in a constant circle of codes, and security questions and DL upload (which is a serious issue for me) with no help at all. You report the hack and they literally do nothing. Locked out of my business account of 13 years as well. They run their company with “bots”. WE are not “bots” we are people that need assistance. They happily take money from ads and pound us with the same then just delete you as if your life experiences and business successes no longer matter. And their “bots” should EASILY be able to tell the “inappropriate content” is in direct contrast to anything ever posted in your account in the first place. Isn’t that what “bots” do? Run algorithmic equations? It should be obvious the content posted by the hacker is unusual activity and help the user not punish the victim.

  82. This has just happened to me now. FB has disabled my account and seems no recourse. Been nearly a 15yr old user. All memories, all connects gone. There needs to be a way to make FB review them properly before just wiping usnput. Hackers are getting successfully with this and users are suffering. We need to send this message across to FB together.

  83. It is July 2022 and this exact same thing just happened to me last week. Weird email login attempt from Pakistan, a weird photodrop to my phone, and fb shut down all within 24 hours. I am devastated as I have lost more than 12 years of memories. Did anyone resolve their issue? Was a lawsuit ever filed? Did anyone recover their account?

  84. Same thing happened to me last night. I’ve tried multiple times to get back in, & actually got in last night. Logged in this morning again & was kicked out. I’d used the selfie video to get back in last night & uploaded the same video twice today plus id photos. I tried going back to the old “back in email” to see if that would work. It kept kicking me out saying I posted sexual pictures, which of course I didn’t. Last attempt it took me to a screen & gave me a chance to upload my id again, saying it’ll take a day but also that they might not let me in due to community standards. Now my phone & both email aren’t recognized by Facebook. 10 years of business development gone plus all the photos of my kids.

    Has anyone had luck getting back in? It still shows my photo through the app login, but when I log in through the old recovery emails it shows no photo & just saying I’m disabled. This is heartbreaking!!

  85. I have NO CLUE what was posted or who posted it. It’s been so stressful. I felt sure that once Facebook reviewed my page of family photos, holiday celebrations, recipes, etc. (nothing political, controversial, threatening) they would realize that I had been hacked! I was shocked to learn that Facebook has since “reviewed their decision and that it CANNOT BE REVERSED.” I’m beyond heartbroken. Losing all my conversations in Messenger, especially from family and friends who have passed on, is the saddest part. If anyone comes up with a solution, PLEASE, PLEASE SHARE.

  86. Hi Laura – Did you ever pursue a class action suit? I am very interested in joining one. Facebook should not be allowed to do this.

    1. Same thing happened to me in Singapore last Friday. I made police report. Went to Facebook office in person, they handed me a brochure to go to Facebook.com/hacked

      Sent in my ID and got an email that the account is disabled due to above u all shared. My IG too.

      They charged a lot to my PayPal. Now hoping PayPal help to recover the funds.

      I will pay Facebook office visit again. The staff say they encounter such daily.

  87. Just happened to me. Same as above. No response from Facebook. Insta and FB disabled. Not available for additional review. Can’t access business profiles. Trying to see if staff with access are able to have any luck. 14 years. I hate Meta.

  88. Susan Palazzese

    The same thing just happened to me Monday morning I got an email that my FB account was suspended for posting content that violates community standards. This shut down access to my business manager and ad account as well. I requested a review but no response yet. . 6 days later I get a notification from AmEx about a to. Of FB as charges. Hackers got my account suspended and then charged $50K in Facebook ads over 5 days. And I can’t contact anyone from fB because my account is suspended. I am so upset about my ad account and the devastating impact it is having on my business but I’m equally devastated about losing all of my photos and memories and likely my Instagram acct as it doesn’t sound like I will have much luck with my request for review. I am very interested in Joining a class action suit if anyone wants to start one.

    1. This also just happened me, I am not sure why they are still capable of hacking after this same problem has been happening for so long. I feel like it’s all automated and do not care at all. I am am a women but do not have a business. I’m a grandma that has almost 2 decades of memories on here. I also woke up to crazy messages from Facebook. It is such a shame that by now they do not have actual people or a hot line to help us get to the bottom of this. It is a nightmare, I sure wish there was a lawsuit, I cannot use fb, Instagram or messenger. This is truly heartbreaking to see so many people that lost so many memories!!

    2. Hi Susan, my name is Jenna and I promise you I’m a real person. This just happened to me 48 hours ago, I got emails from Facebook that my password had been changed and someone logged in in Hong Kong. I live in the US by the time I realize what was happening, my account was already disabled along with my Instagram, I appeal through Facebook and sent my ID although I was just denied and said my account was disabled permanently, and there was nothing I could do about it. I started looking it up and reading blogs and came across someone’s experience who had a business profile, and was able to contact somebody through Meta Facebook business. My personal page was also linked to my business page, both disabled, so what I did was I created a personal new page, then a new business page just so I can have access to try to contact an agent. The way I did this was after being on my business account page I clicked on the meta-business page, then there’s a commerce section I was able to click on, and it enabled me to send a message to a Facebook service representative. This representatives just really for business banking issues but I utilize it anyway. The first customer service agent I emailed emailed me back and said that there was nothing that could be done. I felt defeated again however, I sent another message and the kindest woman I’ve ever spoken to replied, and asked if it would be easier to have a phone call. she just called me, she works for meta-business Facebook, and I explain to her the entire situation. I sent her screenshots of the emails Facebook had sent me saying that someone had change my password and that somebody had logged in from Hong Kong. She’s attaching the screenshots, as well as a brief summary of what happened and escalating it to a higher department and she said that she will be back in touch with me within 24 to 48 hours with a decision. she couldn’t promise me anything and she was honestly so nice I’m not even sure I minded at that moment I was just so happy to speak to somebody. I’ve read on a couple different forums of Facebook representatives calling instead of emailing, but I thought that was total BS, apparently it’s not. I spent hours trying to figure out a way to contact someone from Facebook and this seems to be the absolute only way you can speak to a human being. I hope my accounts get reinstated, will keep you posted. I’m sorry this happened, totally sucks

      1. I am in the same boat and actually been on the phone with someone and they stated that they know my account was compromised and now has been sent to internal investigation (whatever that means). I am going to 2 months since my account was hacked. Did you get your account back?

  89. its like u describing my case what a joke and facebook didnt try to fix that gap in there system
    cant we just sue facebook for that
    we payed money for ads alots of money to run our business so at least we get our money back

  90. Same thing happened to me. I have been banned from facebook for posting inappropriate material and cannot get into my business page or personal page. My business page is a big part of how I make a living. I requested the 28 day review about 4 days ago. When I try to login to facebook now, I get message(s) stating that I cannot use facebook and that I am under review for 28 days and if found to be in violation my pages will not be reinstated. I went to the website GetHuman and used their site to send a letter to facebook. The letter requests that the ban be removed and lets them know my side of the story including the fact that I have not posted anything in a very long time. How do you violate policy and guidelines if you haven’t even made a post? So far I have not received any response from facebook. I’m not confident anything will work or draw a response from facebook to be honest. I’ve done nothing wrong and this is very upsetting. Especially to lose the business page I had worked so hard on. Someone mentioned earlier that it seems to only be happening to business women. I am a business man. Therefore it is happening to a men and women. I AM ALL FOR A LAWSUIT. HOW DOES ONE GET A LAWSUIT LIKE THIS UNDERWAY? LET’S GET STARTED ASAP.

  91. Hi, this just happened to me yesterday, the hacker logged in my fb account and then posted child pornography to get my profile disabled. Since it is disabled i cannot go through the recovery steps… 14 years of picture memories are gone and contacts from all over the world are lost.
    It says there will be an examination but after reading this article I don’t have any hopes.
    GAFA power = dictatorship … the richer these companies get, the more power they get as they corrupt governments to the point they will rule the world to their laws.
    I have no intention at the moment to create a new profile as I think i’ll take this opportunity to stay anonymous instead of having myself exposed. Or i might just go to the russian facebook (VK) or the chinese one haha

  92. Terrible!! It just happened to me. Woke up Monday and my FB was disabled. was not sure what was going on. I goto check my emails and have about 6 emails from FB start about 12:22 AM night before. Acount recovery code, Then password reset , then action needed, Password reset and then accoutn disabled for inappropiate content.
    I did the 30 days review… I have no idea waht was posted. never was able to log in a see. but you would think like others mentions . 13 yrs of family content and then some all the wall stuff. Delete that content and let me have my account back……So frusterating!!!

  93. This is still a problem that Facebook is doing nothing about. My account was phished on March 29th and then they made posts that went against the Community Standards, getting my account disabled. They then used my PayPal and Facebook ads. I have almost 2 decades of memories on there that I will never get back. I was never even given the chance to submit proof of ID. It’s crazy that a company with so much money and power can’t even offer real customer support.

  94. Hi,

    The same thing happened to me too on Saturday. I can see from all your comments that there is no way I can recover my profile and the associated business page and Instagram. I worked very hard to build up my Instagram profile, it feels so daunting to start everything from scratch. I also feel very vulnerable as I couldn’t report anything on Facebook and there isn’t any phone number or email that you can use to talk to a real person. I reported everything to cybercrime on Action Fraud; I am based in the UK.

  95. Sounds like I’m in the same boat…so discouraging…been on 10 years…said it was disabled for not following community standards…no explanation at all! All they asked is for my drivers license, nothing else, and said it’s under review…two questions…what are the chances they will actually look into it and do they check the IP it’s coming from? 2. If I don’t hear back, although it’s super annoying, CAN I create a new personal page with a new email or will this cloud follow me around forever? so unfair! I know they have 2 billion users and I’m simply a number, but I rely it on it a lot for my business, contacts and even marketplace…can’t do ANYTHING? If someone can tell me if I can create a new account without getting shut down again, I would appreciate an answer…thanks~

  96. Rachel Withers

    Same thing happening to me.. on day 13 of waiting for them to approve my ID. I’m starting to think FB is doing this on purpose to save data and make money since their stocks are tanking. They can’t even afford customer support.

  97. The same exact thing happened to me, although it won’t even let me get a review since it has an issue with my email address. I am devastated. I also am the sole admin to a non-profit summer camp. This is tough as it is almost time to run! My sister was killed the same day as the facebook thing, I am sad I can’t connect and also look back to my memories that I had of her. I am struggling. If there is a class action lawsuit, I would be in!

  98. If you need to confirm your partner’s sincerity,employee’s honesty,recover your email passwords, Social networks( i.e Facebook,Twitter,IG ),change your school grades,clear your criminal records and all kind of hacking services contact [email protected] , he works with proofs and keeps to his words.

  99. My Facebook account was disabled for no apparent reason a couple of years ago. I did a lot of research and bitched and moaned to every possible link associated with FB. Twitter was a good platform with its #facebookdisabledme and similar hashtags. Lots of like-minded people with similar stories — and scammers. After two months of raising cain, it all returned, my cat-related account as well. Here’s my story. https://sallybahner.blogspot.com/2020/12/facebookdisabledmyaccount-but-i-won-in.html#more

  100. I can confirm that this abuse-scam still goes on in March 2022. Apparently Facebook has not even bothered to close this abuse-gap. It seems quite clear that this is a deliberate act by the culprit to first get the account banned. Then somehow, I don’t even understand how, they access the ad marketplace and do a transaction. Serious firms would also freeze the possibility to make purchases while banned.
    This is absolutely absurd behaviour.

  101. Thanks for your post and all the other commenters. Same has just happened to me and I feel foolish now – that I too did not ever expect this to happen. Business account, followers and most importantly our families memories and all the comments etc.
    Instagram was attached so lost that too.

    Feeling very sorry for myself, and so furious with FB. Need it for business and that is the hardest pill to swallow, that I do have to start again. Will stop wasting time trying to get it back now after reading all these. Face reality that they are lost and get on with starting over. Good luck everyone x

  102. This happened to me today. I’ve had my FB acct for almost 2 decades. Apparently this log in occurred in a state that FB noticed was odd and so FB asked if it was me. They provided the IP address – I looked it up and saw it was in another state about 1000 miles away). I said NO it was not me. The next box that popped up was to change my password, which I did. Then a few hours later, I was suspended due to “child sexual exploitation”. EGADS. I’m a mom with grown kids, and like I said, almost 20 years of very regular family posts. I requested a review – nothing else you can do. I did notice when I was trying to contact them via their website and supplied my phone number to log in to contact them, my profile thumbnail did not have my profile pic anymore – just the generic “no photo” icon. Luckily my husband has an acct so he posted what had happened so family & friends won’t wonder what happened to me. One would think the IT guys at FB would be able to see I WAS HACKED on the same day this post (posts?) happened, right?? What ever happened to common sense! It’s so frustrating because Yes, you are correct – we own nothing on FB and have no rights to our photos, posts, etc. There isn’t even a spot to “comment” on what happened – just a check box requesting a review. Because Instagram is now a part of FB, I went there and changed my password since they hadn’t hacked it yet. So now I begin the wait to see if my almost 20 years of FB will be destroyed by them and the evil hackers that did this. And spent hours changing all of my passwords everywhere since I don’t know how they got my password to begin with. And after I’m done with all the new passwords, I’m going to use a Password Manager to protect them… should have done this years ago, lesson learned. What a nightmare.

    1. Yep, its happened to me only yesterday, 15 years, memories with now departed friends and my photography page and instagram all gone. To boot when I tried to start again with a new email i had to set up, fb knew it was me and just asked for a photo id then linked that to my old account saying they are going to review my appeal, and if i lose that appeal then everything gone, i wasnt appealing I was trying to start again! I guess with my photo now on file and my phone number in the system they are going to use it against me to make sure I cant even start again. I cant believe they can do this to people with no recourse – Sean

  103. Clarke Garnett

    Broken record but same thing here. We need to keep pressing. NPR did a small piece about this on August 2, 2021but it didn’t go into much detail. This is obviously the formula hackers are using and Facebook can give one rats ass about its “members“. All they care about is profit. To prove that, I am trying an experiment with a commercial product that supposedly is going to allow me to reactivate my account. If it works I will come back and post on here. I think we need to follow up with NVR to see if they’ll do another story and turn this thing into a fricking mushroom cloud to expose the callous, uncaring, absolute power this behemoth possesses. This Zuckerberg monster operates with complete impunity under section 230 and all we can do is work as a group to expose the damage it causes to innocent folks like us who have faith in the system and then watch the system fail us.

    Social media is something we have become way too dependent on. Honestly I don’t even use Facebook and maybe post “happy birthday” on there a couple times a year. Every once in a while I use Marketplace and I have used messenger to find long lost friends. I’m not taking up this cause because it ruined my business or anything like many of you. I am taking up the cause because this company just doesn’t care and someone needs to expose it for what it is and get a movement started to expose it but, more importantly, to change it!

    If we are here, think about the tens if not hundreds of thousands of people who have been impacted in the same way and this “oligarch of the Internet” just doesn’t care and has done nothing in their “algorithms” to figure out what’s going on to help innocent people like us just live our lives on a daily basis staying in touch with friends. Something we were doing because THEY invented it and we got sucked in!!! Remember the old saying, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Truer words were never spoken…

    I will gladly join any class action!! I’ll let you know if the trick they suggest in the NPR article works. Good luck everyone!

  104. Same thing happened to me December 31st 2021, I was hacked but didn’t realize it for a few weeks as I kept getting the “your account has been disabled login message) my Facebook buisness account which was linked to both my personal and buisness Instagram accounts, all have been disabled, had over $2000 in fraudulent charges to my credit card for Facebook advertising over the course of a few weeks. Facebook has confirmed the fraudulent charges and I’ve since been reimbursed, however I still haven’t had any of my accounts reinstated (been 2 months now) It’s beyond frustrating that you can spend all this time and money in advertising, building up your customers/clients and in the blink of an eye you lose it all. After reading all these comments it doesn’t sound promising that I’ll be able to get my accounts back…. So I guess it’s time to start rebuilding, here’s to day 1 😢

  105. This just happened to me. I am looking at all of the comments on here!! All women, all business owners, all have been on Facebook for years. I finally came to the realization over the past 48 hours that Facebook does not protect or help victims of hacked accounts. My hacker changed my profile picture and name to a celebrity that resides in another country. Therefore, I am not abiding by Facebook standards. So even though I was able to change my email and phone number back – I had no access to my account to change my page to meet the Facebook standards. My account was forever disabled. There is no way to have a real person look at my case. Because my account has been disabled – I can’t even complete an appeal form. I am sure this happens on a daily basis to so many users – Facebook needs to make a change to protect and help their loyal users!

  106. Count me in for a class action law suit. My personal page was hacked and according to facebook, pictures of child exploitation were posted. I lost access to my 12 year business page Harmony Club Dolls with 144,000 followers. The hacker then proceeded to attempt to steal a total of $30,000 from my various bank accounts that using my credit cards and Paypal listed in facebook. While my banks rejected most of the charges immediately, $7,000 was stolen from me. I filed an FBI report and disputed the charges. Luckily all the money was returned from Facebook. I send a letter and various emails to facebook for disabled accounts. I got no reply whatsoever. They destroyed my business of 12 years and I lost all the memories of my kids that I had been saving in my personal account.

  107. This is my reality right now same hell, along with my What’s App blocked and permanently disabled. I have uploaded my ID but my hope is dwindling every day.
    The hard work, memories business contacts, gone.

  108. anyone get it back? I had the same thing happen the pandemic has been tough enough for small businesses and to lose all social media platforms because of a hacker is so unfair .

  109. I just read your blog and yeap, the exact same happened to me. Exactly. And I lost $900 in the process. It’s unbelievable and unacceptable that Facebook being the largest platform on the world has no Customer Service and no control from their part. There is literally no person on this planet that you can talk to to even try to solve the issue. Facebook takes not only our experiences but our businesses and our investments, because building a sold platform on Facebook and Instagram is not cheap. And then this happens and you have to start from scratch. They should be sued!

  110. The same thing just happened to me. 🙁 First was FB, IG and now my phone number has been banned from WhatsApp. I don’t understand what happened and just a bunch of robo responses from Meta. I use multifactor on my account and have talked to several friends to see if they got any spam from me or saw any weird or inappropriate posts. Nothing. I’m a stroke survivor and use the platforms to keep in contact with family and friends. I’m so stressed out about this and heartbroken that I will lose those memories.

  111. Same has happened to me. 🙁
    The hackers posted peodophillia. Facebook disabled my account without even caring who I was and my businesses that I run from fb. 14 years of FB memories.
    Imagine if FB had someone we could communicate with. But no! Just gone!!! I dont know if its worth going back on now. 🙁 I dont think I want to be apart of a platform like that. Good luck to you all. xo

  112. Melissa, this happened to me Friday night. I was personally shut down on FB and also IG and my business account on IG on was shut down. I too also have a Business FB page with no other Admin so now it is sitting there. My product catalog from Shopify is somehow posting to it. So that is active. But obviously I cannot post to it.

    So when you created a new FB business page, you now have 2 with the same business name and you can only post to 1? How are you managing this? I am overwhelmed with the thought of creating a new page and having the old one sit there without new posts or a way for me to let my 5,000 followers know what happened. Any advice? I have let my email list know that we were hacked and to pray. Well, it appears FB just decided to shut me down so I need to figure out a strategy.

  113. What a nightmare – I’ve just been alerted to a bunch of ISIS images being posted from my account and now I’ve been blocked from my account. No doubt they won’t consider the fact that it wasn’t me 🙁 There go countless business pages and groups that I won’t have access to again.

  114. This just happened to me… I am completely beside myself. I have been searching and searching to try to find a contact or to report this, but I am not finding anything. Has anyone had any luck???

  115. Same here- my FB account was hacked and they posted some Jihad stuff and got me and my IG disabled which is a blow since I’m a professional photographer. They got into my ads account and ran up $5 in charges before I caught it and disconnected my PayPal. Incredibly frustrating that they don’t have a better way to resolve this- even lawyers don’t have much luck. Seems like public pressure has worked in the past. Seems like someone with an active account should create a FB group to advocate for us, and because there are enough of this, maybe bring it to some elected officials. Since money and livelihoods are usually involved, they need a better resolution system.

  116. F*ck! This just happened to me today and they stole $750 from my PayPal account. I have a 12 year old business page and I’m the only admin as it appears the hackers took the other admins off. Maybe this was the sign I needed to quit social media.

    1. This happened to me three days ago. I am also considering quiting social media as a result, I’m thinking of just opening a facebook account for business only, and not adding friends etc on it.
      my big gripe is that I’ve lost my instagram account as a result because it was linked to facebook. I’m beyond livid that I can’t recover it.
      So done right now.

    2. this happened to me as well. They still everything from me including my business page. I can’t even use my Shopify account with the new page I created. I am trying to find help with no results.

    3. Just happened to my husband and I. MANY years on Facebook and now can’t even get anyone to explain things too. I currently watching the little circle spin trying to dispute the decision that I have 27 more days to do, but I don’t think it’s going to let me. It’s very shocking that they don’t have a better, more efficient way of dealing with these criminals. I’m still battling the same highjacker on Instagram as well.

    4. Same happened to me, as you and this article…family photos and memories and business accounts lost by a hacker putting ISIS crap. FB won’t listen. My theory is that it was October and the election was the motivation for why they’d pick on little Ole me. I posted some anti-trump jokes. Is this a common thread from all of us?

    5. Same happened to me and I’m definitely taking it as that kind of sign. Still is awful though. The fact that there is no way to communicate with facebook about a hacked account is appalling.

    6. How did you manage to start a new FB account after FB had flagged you as a “terrorist?” I have a client who can’t start a new page with her phone number or even a different email address. It’s as if Facebook doesn’t want anything to do with her at all anymore. If you have any ideas, I’d appreciate them.

    7. What about the fact that they stole from us and violated our Constitutional right to freedom of speech! That is a communist tactic to quell free speech. And feel like we can’t just ignore FB’s actions. You should at least voice your betrayal to the US Attorney General. The friggin’ Govt’. isn’t going to o anything. BUT FB’s action will be on an Official Record. And possibly OUR complaints will be added be the on-going investigation now in progress about FBs overall CONDUCT. Thanks. Art Knowles / [email protected] FB would not let me comment directly to you btw.

  117. All of these comments and experiences are mine as well… I first noticed several new friend requests on my personal page… Strange names… I checked my friends list and found several “new” friends with similar names that I didn’t know and quickly deleted them… a couple of days later, Thanksgiving morning 2021, Facebook account disabled… The day after… my PayPal account was hacked into for Facebook ads… The first $25, then $50 and then $250. I had to fight the charges, change my business bank account and credit card account… Fortunately, I did have an admin besides myself on my business page so that didn’t go away… I had to create another page so I could be added as an admin to regain access to my customers on my business page… I’ve tried jumping through all the previous mentioned hoops with no success… I’ve hated Facebook for several years now and have wanted to leave the platform… However, this is where I started my business and although I have a website, Facebook is where most of my customers old and new, find me… I am angry there is no way of contacting a person to talk to… They clearly are protecting the wrong people and punish those who have made them the wealthy corrupt empire they’ve become…

    1. Same thing happened to me. Thankgiving my account was hacked. It resulted in me being permanently banned on FB, IG and WhatsApp. I filed an appeal but never heard back from Facebook. The 30 days passed since they disabled my account so now I am permanently disabled. I guess it happened to a lot of people recently. Maybe Facebook will do something about it but I doubt it. Luckily I didn’t have any money stolen I assume that was the hackers goal but since they couldn’t really get that much information off of me they decided to post things exploiting children. That’s ultimately what triggered my suspension and the ban. So now I don’t want to join again. Maybe everyone who has been hacked with no luck reaching Facebook should just boycott their apps. Maybe when they start losing money they’ll wake up and help users.

    2. Same experience here. So frustrating and annoying!! They do need to fix this. Ridiculous they have no help for this!

  118. Currently the same thing is happening to me… My account was hacked and the email, phone number and password were all changed. My Instagram had been linked to my FB, but I was able to get that switched back with little to no problem (less than 24 hours). You would think it would be just as easy since they are under the same company! I have had SO MUCH anxiety about my FB page, because I have Epilepsy and memory loss as a side effect of it, that I can’t bear to lose all the memories and posts that not only I posted, but that I am tagged in as well. There goes a nice size portion of memories that I won’t EVER be able to recall. Their Help Support page honestly sucks and is no help at all whatsoever. I have tried verifying my account, uploaded my ID multiple times etc. but the link I am always sent NEVER works. Whenever I am given a code to reset the password, I am told I’ve used it multiple times already etc…

    1. Hi Allison,

      I am going through this very thing and would be happy to rid myself of FB forever! I do use Instagram for my business so I really need that back, you said you were able to disconnect it? How did you do that?

      Thanks in advance!
      Sarah

    2. Hello, I would love to know how you got the instagram account back. Same thing happened to me and I do not know how to get my instagram as it was linked to my facebook. Any help is appreciated. Thanks so mcuh.

    3. Oh my gosh I am going through this now. How did you get your IG account back? Right now they have disabled it because I had it linked to my FB sign on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  119. Last night the same thing happened to me. My finance had passed away 3 years ago this May. I was pregnant with our son. All of our memories together as well as our chat is now gone forever. All of the photos and videos I uploaded of our son are now lost forever. I have tried everything to try and get into my Facebook but I have had zero luck! I am completely heartbroken.
    I had changed my phone number a year ago. Now the only way to get back in is to have a code sent to my phone via text. The only number they have listed is my old phone number! I have uploaded my ID and also changed my email. As whoever hacked my account had changed my primary email.

    1. If you still get that page that says it is being reviewed, look up at the top right and click the down arrow and you can download all your information. I hope that helps.

  120. Gee – same thing happened to me. I was getting odd friend requests and deleting those but all of a sudden my facebook page and my business page associated with my facebook have been shut down. There is no contact information for facebook to allow you to talk with someone and resolve the issue. I too uploaded my ID to facebook and still that didn’t help resolve the problem. All my information and small business following is lost.

  121. Thank you so much for this blog post. The same thing happened to me yesterday. I have a Wedding Photography Business. My Instagram feed was linked to my FB page so I have lost my Insta as well. I found it impossible to find any information out about my predicament until I found your post. Now I understand that I am not getting my accounts back! And if they really checked the accounts they would realize I post happy photos of people getting married. My FB ads account was also hacked and charged. Oh the effort to start all over again!! Really appreciate this helpful post.

  122. This just happened to me. Exact same scenario. I am devastated. Please tell me that you eventually found resolution! Please! I am heartbroken

  123. The same exact thing happened to me about three weeks ago. They charged me $500 in facebook ads and got two bank cards and a credit card. I could not recover the facebook ads money…facebook got all of it. I lost all my family memories I had posted since 2007 and my business page that we had been growing for five years with 24,300 followers. We need to do a class action lawsuit and stop letting facebook take our money and our pages without even trying to help. Now I’m getting emails about refunding the people that bought the crappy shoes that the hacker posted with my $500 in facebook ads. If they would bother looking into it they could see that I don’t sell shoes from china.

    1. Fb disabled my account saying something about community standards and sexual exploitation of children. I’m angry I need to see what the heck they are talking about . That’s a huge accusation . I’m not giving them an official identification. Since when do u need to submit photo ID to prove who u are. When did fb turn into nazi Germany? You can’t tell me or show what was on my feed to see if I even posted it or not.

    2. This exact same thing happened to me. I was wondering why I was getting charged again for a Facebook bill of $900. Now it’s all making since. Did you dispute the facebook Ad charge?

  124. Girl….the exact same thing just happened to me. It got hacked they posted a Taliban profile picture with guns and disabled my acct. EVEN my IG (because FB is now linked to IG), I proceeded with the ID upload as well and all that…to get the message that it’s been disabled without reversing…how frustrating. But yes, our accounts are NOT ours anymore, they control everything!!!
    I cannot even use the FB App only the web browser, ridiculous.

    Did you open your new acct with the same name? (I had a like page too and they took it down).

  125. Hollie Wilkinson

    I had my account disabled yesterday for saying I’m underage so I sent my ID in then to find that after being disabled someone’s spent £800 via my business page for adverts …. No response from anyone I’m
    So upset

  126. Same thing just happened to me. Profile photo replaced with Isis flag and they attempted to use ads account. I’m not sure yet if they succeeded. I also got the message that their decision could not be reversed. It seems that they could create a bot for this type of thing and that would be relatively easy. The hack style seems common enough.

    1. Exactly same thing happened to me…October 2020. Every day I plead with them. Nothing. All family photos and memories are lost. Also a business page became inaccessible…same isis fake.

  127. Same thing JUST happened to me. Business woman with multiple businesses linked and IMMEDIATE charges to my paypal from Facebook. I am in the process of disputing, but I have a feeling I will never get back the memories and photos of my kids.

  128. I am going through this right now. I have literally done EVERYTHING trying to get my Facebook account back. How can they just take it down?? If they are going to have an “appeal” then ask me a question, not just request my drivers license. If there is a class action lawsuit…count me in.

    1. I had this also happened to me no warning just disable my account

      I did the ID thing and there’s no way of contacting anyone. It seems to me the real hackers are Facebook themselves.

      If they weren’t they could see our accounts were hacked and support our pages.
      Facebook definitely are the real hackers if they allow this.

      Count me in for lawsuit

  129. Same thing happened to me and lost 14 years of memories, clients therefore business!
    They should have a solution for this mess.

  130. This just happened to me about 10 days ago. I’ve filled out every form I can asking them to review my account. I was just telling my sister that we don’t own our social media accounts and to screen shot EVERYTHING we want to save as a memory. 13 years, 5 kids, so many memories.

  131. Same thing happened to me last night. Woke up to emails from Facebook stating that my account was trying to be accessed and my password was changed. This was around 2:17am when I was fast asleep. When I tried to log in to secure my account, it had already been disabled. My review was denied also when I submitted it. It says I violated FB standards. I’ve been a user for 14 yrs- all this pics and memories gone. AND my account is linked to my Instagram so that is been disabled as well. Shame on you FACEBOOK!

    1. same thing happen to me 14 years of memories, now i can’t see my daughters page who passed away. SHAME ON YOU FACEBOOK FOR NO RECOVERY!

  132. The same thing just happened to me. I have been posting restoration projects on a number of historic houses, and sharing all of it with several groups of historic homeowners. Not only is my account deactivated with no recourse, but all of the photos and techniques I shared in my posts to the groups are also deleted. Luckily, I post it on a couple other sites, but I probably won’t rebuild the albums of thousands of photos that I left public so others could study them.

  133. Hello,
    I came across this post because I am searching for other people that this has happened to. This recently happened to me, as well, AND money was stolen via my PayPal account, which said that i ‘paid” Facebook for ads, which I obviously did not and COULD not from a completely disabled account. I de-linked my bank account from my PayPal, removed all ‘automatic payments’ from my PayPal. BUT, I am absolutely going to sue Facebook. While I don’t own my page or content, I sure as hell own my MONEY which was stolen and received by Facebook for fictional ads. Whether Facebook was the culprit or not doesn’t matter. Facebook makes it literally impossible to report this type of hacking and to alert them to protect your financial information, which Facebook stores any time you use it for a financial transaction. If Facebook cannot protect you from being hacked, it still has a duty to protect your financial information from being used. AND it has clearly received many, many thousands, possibly millions of it’s users stolen money. If anyone wants to join me and form a class action, I would be interested in doing so. I am an attorney in New Jersey, though I don’t do class action suits, I would LOVE to be a part of one.

    1. Hi Laura i also had my account closed on Dec 27 without any explanation the last id been getting was things saying “abusing features” yet I had simply been ordinarily posting things to share Christmas pictures and artistic ideas with family and freinds world wide .I had been getting some kinda of algorithm triggered for spam but none of it was spam i had been bothered bya FB hacker who had chased me around the internet and resulted in them tryign to contact me under various fake names and then I get banned and not them.Seems the targets listed here were mostly females so why is facebook allowing this silencing of women.Signed disabled breast cancer surviving Candian artist single mother BLOCKED for life from facebook for literallly being a human being.

    2. Hi Laura, my name is Snezana from North Macedonia, this thing with Facebook just happened to me also, and i am very upset, i have been working for non profit, and have page that i created for usaid environmental project in my country that was shot down as well. It’s not just personal information, memories but also long, hard work and network that is lost. I was online on FB massanger when in 1 minute 29 posts with people with guns were posted on my profile, instantly i was blocked by Facebook, i had no time to even see closely or edit one post. If there is a law suit i want to be part of it, i can help in finding more victims, i don’t want someone discredit me like this, step on my hard work and blame me guilty without giving me opportunity to prove innocent. I may not have power to change or return my profile but I raise my voice i fight for justice.

    3. Hi there, were you able to get a solution? This has just happened to me, and although I am still waiting for their decision after requesting a review, I’m afraid that they are going to permanently disable it. The other admin of my Facebook page was able to report it and Facebook recognized our ad account was hacked and reimbursed the unauthorized charges back, but they have not reinstated my account.

    4. Hi Laura – Did you ever pursue a class action suit? I am very interested in joining one. Facebook should not be allowed to do this.

    5. I am going through this now! Was yours ever recovered??? I had $400 accessed from my credit card in my ad account, then the hacker posted the worst kind of child post and I was suspended, then THEY requested review so that I could not. How knows what they said or did, but I can’t do anything to tell someone what happened. 14 years, 2 business pages and groups that I use for my business. I am just so upset.

    6. Has ANYONE had success in fighting these suspensions or getting any response from Facebook/Meta? I am a victim of this same thing this past week, and I’m fighting to save 14 years of memories of my children growing up. These hackers are deliberately targeting women – they are targeting women-owned small business accounts (that’s how they hacked mine – via an old email address off my old website) and are fully aware that many women use their maiden name as part of their Facebook profile name, which makes it easier for old friends to find you but far LESS likely that your profile name exactly matches your current ID. Then you have women who are desperate to save their children’s photos and memories and are far more susceptible to additional scams to “recover” the account – I’ve had NUMEROUS scammers reach out wanting me to pay them to run “anti-malware” and other obvious attempts to scam me out of more money. How do we get Meta to respond to this obvious targeting of women and their lack of help to prevent it or recover accounts?
      Has anyone started a class action suit?

    7. Hi Laura
      How did you go? There’s talk of a class action over on Reddit, and an entire topic on it. I’m horrified to see how old some of these dates are, and how long it’s been a known problem. We are still being deactivated and defrauded over a year later (from just this blog post)

  134. Same thing just happened to me. I had my business account attached. I have no notifications about warning and I have no idea what was posted that took my page down. Something happened and 3AM and I lost my Instagram FB page that I have had for years.

  135. Wow! I’m so glad I found this blog. We have experienced the exact same issue in the last week. Woke one morning to be unable to login to Facebook. When attempting to reset my password, the email address that was to receive the link was not mine!! I went through the useless Facebook help site, uploaded I.D. and eventually stumbled into a way to add another email address. I was able to establish a password that was mine again and login to Facebook, but I wasn’t actually logged in, as my Facebook profile was suspended. I had no way to establish any identity on my Facebook page, or remove any malicious content that may or may not have been there as I couldn’t see anything.
    I tried every scenario I could find to say my Facebook was hacked, never did I receive any responses. I continued to attempt to login, desperately hoping I would receive or see something positive, each time I was greeted with the same message stating ‘we have received your information’ and that my account was suspended for breaching community standards, all the while the name of the account was no longer mine, it was now the name of a particular country.
    Three days went by, the next morning I logged in to read the message “Your account has been disabled”… “we have reviewed the decision and it can’t be reversed” WTF! I did however have an option to “download my information” however, the information was empty!!! yes, empty!!
    Had a hacker, deleted all my content prior to uploading something inappropriate? Like many others here it was 14 years worth of everyday family and friends life, including messenger messages (that one hurt the most). We were lucky that there was nothing unique in facebook that we don’t already have original’s of. To lose memories of the shared emotions and moments with friends across 14 years of ups and downs of life was still quite distressing.

    I’m mostly angered that there is no recourse to actually send any message to facebook in the event of being hacked. None of the mechanisms to report a hacked account provide any platform to explain what has occurred which I find absolutely appalling. I’m also very angered that Facebook cannot detect the difference of 14 years of personal (by that I mean MY family’s personal everyday events and photos) Facebook activity (whether in person, or by software) to that of a hacker’s malicious activity over a two day period, even after the account has been reported on numerous times that it has been hacked.
    Here’s a thought for Facebook, “You have breached the community standards” of everyone on this blog and I would assume that you continue to do so on a daily basis as any search in facebook brings up a host of what look like obviously bogus accounts.
    I too, like the author, had Facebook Business pages of which I was the admin, fortunately I was not the only admin. Where I am stuck now however is that I cannot create a new Facebook page as my email is somehow still linked to my Disabled Account! even though the hacker changed my Facebook primary email address to something else.

    I’m now stuck. I don’t exactly know what the solution is here. After 30 days will my account be deleted, at that time can I create a new facebook account? Will I be able to create one with my original email address?

    1. OMG, I have 2 weeks already with my FB, IG and now Whatsapp disabled. Did you ever get back your account? I am desperate. I have tried everything and I still don’t get any type of response. I would appreciate your response.

  136. Same girl. All of it. Just went from the 30 day countdown to now permanently disabled. I just want my puppy photos back 🙁

  137. My facebook account was just hacked from an unknown IP address. I checked my acct while I was waiting for someone to show up for an appt at work and saw an email that someone had requested a password change, then another message that my acct had been deactivated because it didn’t follow community standards. Low and behold, there was a vulgar profile pic by my name. I didn’t do it. It’s really weird…it told me I have 30 days to request a review. When I click the link to do that, it takes me a screen that says “Security Check”. My phone number is there, I check it and request a security code. An error message pops up that the code could not be sent, but a couple of seconds later, I get a text with the code. I have been to the help section and can’t find any options that work. No way to even get in touch with facebook. Now I have 28 days to request a review but still don’t know how to do that. Any ideas?

  138. I read this blog and felt as though I was reading the exact same thing that happened to me only hours ago.
    I spent two years building my tutoring business that was marketed solely through my business page and it all vanished overnight. I woke up to approximately three emails sent around midnight from Facebook, clearly someone was trying to log into my account because access code was being requested, and then Facebook disabled it permanently.

    Posted nothing but my family and food for the past 20years.

    This sucks and I am in tears!

    1. I’m so sorry to hear this!
      Going through the exact same thing. Tears, headache can’t stop the anxiety etc.
      The worst part is waiting to find out if my pages will be permanently lost or not 😭

  139. Allie Livingston

    The same thing happened to me! Only I don’t have a business profile. Just a personal one. We were logging on to post our one year wedding anniversary photos when we discovered my account had been disabled. Seeing as how I rarely get on Facebook, I have no idea what happened. Did someone hack my account? Was it deleted because I’m not on enough? Who knows. THEY DON’T TELL YOU. But I will say this much, as an educator I am EXTREMELY selective about what I choose to post and make visible. I am seriously considering taking a class action lawsuit against FB for permanently deleting my account. Would anyone be interested in being a part of the lawsuit??

  140. Nigel Findlater

    My account was hacked. The hacker uploaded obscene photos triggering Facebook to give a 30 day notice that the account will be deleted. I logged on and face book required that I identify myself. So I did with the SMS option. Although I recieved these code the facebook interface would not accept them. Eventually I got a message saying that I had exceeded the number of SMS code and that I need to try again 24 hours later, so I waited 25 hours and tried again only to get the same error. It is irresponsible of facebook to be an identity provider to 2 billion users and not have a call center to handle these kinds of problems. I came across a web site called appropriately gethuman.com that helps users like us talk to companies like facebook. Tomorrow I try again, honestly facebook sucks

      1. It just happened to me too!! All my photos and memories gone. Same messages. Did they ever give you your account back?

    1. The same thing happend to my account, getting hacked and DISABLED because someone posted pictures of the Taliban on my facebook page. My instagram also got DISABLED because it was linked to my facebook account. Now i lost all my memories and friends contacts. Facebook needs to fix this.

    2. Nigel, this EXACTLY what happened to me! I have managed to send them my ID to verify the account but now, after one month, my account was permanently disabled! Were you able to get some help from gethuman.com ?

    3. Same thing happened to me a few days ago. Has anyone been able to get back into their account?
      Only reason I know porn was posted was my sister told me. I can’t even create a new account because, it seems, my phone number is blocked from creating one.

  141. Is there any way we can begin a class action lawsuit regarding this matter? There is another woman that this happened to and it seems to be only happening to business women. I think the people doing the reviews are being very discriminatory in this matter, and it seems a class action would well serve this matter.

    1. I honestly have no idea but it would be worth checking into! You can bet your ass I would be down to sue the crap out of Facebook for this!

      1. Hello this just happened to me as well. I’m deeply hurt. I market my business as well and I’ve had my personal page since 2005. If there is anything we can do, I’d love to be apart of it as well. Facebook disabled it due to a hacker posting child pornography on my page which led to facebook ignoring all of my emails and closing my accounts.

      2. I want to sue them as well. The exact same thing happened to me. The same Taliban picture was used on my account by a hacker also. Obviously this is a known issue to FB since it is happening to so many.

        I’ve tried to request a review, but I can’t. I’mr running into the same SMS problems that others are running into. Their identity verification process is broken. Their links to request a review are broken, and they make it literally impossible to speak to anyone for assistance.

        I am 13 days away from losing 12 years of precious memories, including 4 years of my daughter’s birthday videos, and my youngest daughter’s first word. I’m terribly heartbroken over this.

        I want to sue them to stop them from deactivating my account, and force an actual review. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like that is possible.

    2. It would be nice. FB is locking out accounts without proper justification or researching real problems. They will show key matching parts but won’t send info to phone number listed. Trying to update main email is a hassle but secondary email is fine. However, they won’t confirm anything from secondary email. Reminds me of MS fiasco and the route Apple is going.

  142. The EXACT same thing happened to me! I even got an email from Facebook security telling me that I was hacked and to reset my account. I know these people doing the reviews can see this, but I think they are in on it because money was stolen from my ad account and we had to file fraud through my bank and get all new bank accounts! I have 40,000 followers on my page and it was saved because my husband and a friend are admins, but now it has no owner. Facebook needs to fix our accounts! I don’t even know what was posted on my account that was deleted because I was never able to get into it to see it. Now that I have found your blog, I think I know.

  143. Same thing just happened to me this weekend. I have NO IDEA what was posted or who posted it… but FB didn’t even blink an eye. All my memories and the timeline of life…. My years of hard work building my business… vanished. And I can’t even ask why. Shame on you Facebook!

  144. Yup. The same thing just happened to me—14 years of memories— messenger conversations with people who are now passed. Plus a bunch of charges from facebook were on my credit card. It’s been flagged and now in the hands of my bank. But, I just wanted to warn others who see this to check any linked accounts for suspicious charges on their credit cards, and to not ignore them. The first charge was for $2.50 but the subsequent charges were for $70. It’s a major hassle. But you have to put a stop on your card, and get issued a new one. There’s nothing to say that the Bank will side with you, and who knows what their investigation will reveal. I caught it somewhat early, and can still live even if the charges aren’t reversed. Good luck out there.

  145. The SAME exact thing happened to me two weeks ago! I don’t know what they posted on my page to get me disabled but I had three suspicious emails and new “friends” with Arabic names, so now I’m wondering if they did the same thing and posted photos like you described. I’m FURIOUS!! Not only did I lose THREE business pages but also my one business account on Instagram. It’s so frustrating to have to start from the ground up after 13 years of work. But the Tech genies can just say POOF! and their AI will wipe your work without a trace…

  146. I stumbled upon your blog because the EXACT same situation just happened to me Monday morning. I woke up to an email from FB that someone accessed me account then it was disabled. After answering security questions and submitting my ID, it was permanently disabled. I noticed in the email my profile picture had been changed to Arabic writing or something by the hacker. Heartbroken is an understatement. Like you, 12-13 years of memories and pictures gone, and my Instagram. I have tried a million different things and keep getting the same message that they won’t reverse their decision. Devastating. How is this okay?:( I created a new Facebook account the next day, and they disabled it as well. How were you able to create a new one? I have shed many tears and lost so much sleep over this. I feel violated and like my identity was stolen. I feel like I’m social media world, I just fell off earth and FB is blocking me from ever getting to share my family again.

    1. Awh man. Rachel, I totally hear you. I went through a bunch of nights of massive anxiety, and feeling completely heartbroken after the same thing happened to me. You’re not alone. I was successful in creating a new profile, but for how long—I don’t know. Lesson learned. I’ll be downloading and backing up my info. And, I won’t be linking any of my accounts.

      1. Exact same thing has happened to me, I am a small business owner too. I’m trying to figure out how to create a new account knowing that so many things can flag their ai to connect the dots. Any tips would be great! Thanks for this post, I finally feel like there is a community of people who can relate to all of the hassles of being disconnected from your business pages and groups!

        1. I have not been hacked “YET” but it seems to be a matter of time. Anyone that was hacked and money was stolen should sue Facebook, especially businesses. FB does not offer you security to purchase to protect your accounts giving a false impression that they protect them. They are allowing people to be stolen from and when trying to notify FB, they totally ignore the user while continually letting the hacker to fraudulently use your account. This is wrong. They CAN NOT knowingly let a hacker rob people and then punish the person who was robbed all while that person is notifying them that they were compromised while at the same time suspending accounts because they don’t like a political statement made by a user. They know what’s going on, they are being notified by the user but they choose to ignore that your account was breached. They give users who enter their credit card into Facebook a false sense of security and then let you be hacked and money stolen, then they reprimand the victims. They need to be sued for every dime that was robbed. And how it will work is, you tell Facebook you have been hacked, they do nothing, then the hacker robs your customers or friends, or buys adds. Any harm that was done after the notification to FB will be a VERY BIG problem for them. And just to let everyone know that they can turn your account back on and actually go back to a certain date. So they can recover your info. They can reset your account to the day before it was hacked.

          1. This comment is spot on! It’s criminal because they are actually HELP the hackers and remove the account holders ability to defend themselves!

            Same here. I lost my personal page with almost 3000 followers, my group with 1200 members, my business page, and two Instagram pages. I can’t even download my info so I have lost over a decade of writing and photos and Meta DOESNT CARE. They enable the hackers! They are also now sending me over $500 worth of bills for the hackers ads. 😡😡😡

    2. Were you able to get a new account? I didn’t even consider a new account with a different email would get me blocked, UGH. I NEED my account back. 🙁 If I went to the trouble to start a new one and then get that blocked, OMG… Please tell me you have one now

      1. I’m dealing with this as well. Someone hacked my account on 3/5. Apparently he’s done this to a ton of people, since there’s a group you can find online that’s dedicated to his sick ass (Jeryy Avenaim). UGH! 15 years of memories and I can’t figure out anything that will work, and FB help is non-existent. Did you all end up having any success recovering your account?

  147. Stupid company, never trust tech, always backup your photos and videos to yours harddrive, get a computer at home and backup all your important contents. this useless nasty social network feel too big because they got billions or dollar billions of users.

  148. Hi, I have the exact situation and FB disabled my account too. I did nothing wrong too. May I know if you have any updates if there is any way to ask FB to give us back the accounts?

    1. I wish I had better news, but unfortunately, Facebook will not re-activate my profile, and there is no way to contact them about it. I had to start a new Facebook profile.

      1. Did that work for you? Creating a new Facebook profile? I did a few days ago and now I am being told I can’t comment right now as I have been restricted. I started building my friends and business page back up and now it’s going to be taken down again. Frustrating beyond belief. I contacted some news station to get help but haven’t heard back. I’m in for Class action if anyone goes forward. Thanks.

      2. Here it is, mid-2022 and the EXACT same issue occurred with my Facebook account, Johnikki Jenkins. Saw the warning that someone had logged in, they posted an ISIS picture, Facebook disabled the account, and a few weeks later, there were multiple charges on my credit card to Facebook totaling $833. Now it has been over 30 days and everything is “permanently disabled. ” 14+ years of memories, pictures and videos gone forever. How in the WORLD does a multi-billion dollar company not have any form of customer service whatsoever? This is very depressing and extremely frustrating. 🙁

        1. My Facebook account has been hacked too and my account has been permanently disabled.
          I won’t be opening another FB account, with that attitude they know what they can do with it.

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