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Author Rosaliene Bacchus, Facebook Account Hacked, Facebook Account Suspended for Fraud and Deception, Facebook Security
On May 12, 2024, I shared my elation at regaining access to my Facebook account after discovering on April 12th that it had been hacked. My initial fears about the hacker’s nefarious actions were not unfounded. On Saturday morning, June 22nd, I was shocked to see the captioned notice of suspension of my Facebook account when I attempted to log in. It took a week to recover from the blow to my reputation.
Why? What had I done wrong? Your account, or activity on it, doesn’t follow our Community Standards on fraud and deception, the notice reads. It’s nothing personal. They made this decision because Our technology found your account, or activity on it, doesn’t follow our rules. As a result, our technology took action.
Had AI only now detected the fraudulent activity? Was the hacker still using my account to perpetuate more fraud?
Later that day, I received an email notification from The Facebook Team [security@facebookmail.com] advising me of the suspension with the added warning:
If you think we suspended your account by mistake, you have 180 days to appeal our decision. If you miss this deadline your account will be permanently disabled.
I now stand accused before a faceless entity, referred to as “Our technology.” The “Appeal” button offers me no redemption. I’ve already given Facebook proof of identity to regain access to my hacked account. What more do they need? Credit card information? A paid account upgrade?
Comments on Reddit from other FB account holders about “how to appeal Facebook suspension” proved discouraging. It’s a complicated, lengthy process without guarantee of success. One guy had to pay to upgrade his [business] account to ensure security against hackers.
The upside of this suspension is that the hacker can’t defraud anyone else using my identity. The downside is tough. AI has locked me out from the platform, reminding me of my suspension. Yet, I continue to receive daily email notifications of “Friend Updates.” How cruel! I remind myself that it’s not personal. AI is not human.
Interestingly, I was able to access the Facebook Help Page, using the following link found on Linked In: http://www.facebook.com/help. I found no details about the appeal process for accounts suspended for fraud and deception.
Meanwhile, the days come and go. Thankfully, I don’t use the Facebook/Meta platform to conduct business. Relatives and friends who truly care about me know how to reach me. Though [my] account is not visible to people on Facebook, I continue to exist in the real world. Life goes on.
Three Worlds One Vision 
You are definitely a member of the part of the real world that hasn’t gone mad, Rosaliene
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My assessment, too, derrickjknight. Rosaliene will continue to reach those human beings who matter or who care about other human beings.
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Thank you very much, Katharine
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You are most welcome. We are all treading water, as best we can. No one can predict anything with certainty, but isn’t that always the case?
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Yep
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Derrick, thanks very much for your reassurance 🙂
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I share your frustration with these faceless mega corporations, especially when you have done nothing wrong.
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These mega corporations are everywhere, blocking human initiative, whenever possible. Those who are willing to persist deserve respect.
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Exactly, Denzil! These mega corporations have become so vast that it has become impossible to connect with a real person by email or phone. Their Help Desk amounts to an online chat with a robot (AI).
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It must be frustrating.
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It sure is, Diana! I’m resigned to having my account permanently disabled.
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That is terrible, Rosaliene. I gave up on Facebook a long time ago…life is full of frustrations without having to deal with that nonsense. I am so sorry! ❤️
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I agree. I stopped using Facebook three years ago; one less account to worry about (my Instagram was hacked a few years ago and I have never been able to regain access, even to close it permanently).
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Madeline, you did well when you stopped using Facebook. Sorry to hear about the hacking of your Instagram account. Here’s hoping that Facebook will permanently disable my account at the end of the 180 days deadline. I’ll have to ask my son to verify this, since I’ve been locked out from the platform.
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Rosaliene, Welcome to the “We turned our backs on Facebook” club. When I first stepped away, I was apologetic when someone mentioned Facebook, but now I own my decision and perhaps sound even a bit elitist (“Who me? on Facebook? They should be so lucky to have me!”) I have it down to a look that says, “I have better things to do with my time than scroll Facebook.”
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Thanks, Madeline 🙂 I spent little time on the platform, just 5-10 minutes daily.
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Rosaliene, I wish I were more disciplined when it came to “rabbit holes,” because once I step in, I have trouble climbing out. Facebook was one of those things that could easily eat up hours of my day.
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So true, Madeline.
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Exactly my way of thinking, Sunnyside. I should’ve closed my account when I had the chance. Thanks ❤
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Right, the people important to you will be in touch via other outlets, or in person. Still, the hacker interfered in your life to a significant extent.
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That’s what bothers me, Neil. That can’t be undone 😦 It’s unsettling how Facebook users have been enticed to connect with each other on a platform that offers little protection of one’s data and identity. Worse still, a corporation which holds the power to exclude membership when danger strikes.
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Very sorry, Rosaliene. I’ve also been hacked — many times in various online places — and it’s SO frustrating.
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Frustrating, indeed, Dave! You did mention your own experience when I first posted about my account being hacked.
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Ahhhh Meta. AI, this time stands for A–H—- Incorporated. It allows hackers to hack and keeps users out. Sounds like the perfect dystopian product. I got locked out of my Microsoft account years ago and every once in a while it prompts me to “please try again” to prove I am me. I just gave up. Tech company Help Desks should more correctly be identified as Hell Desks. Happy Sunday Rosaliene. Allan
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Allan, you describe well the perfect dystopian product offered by Big Tech transnational corporations. Their AI-operated Help Desks are, indeed, like Hell Desks.
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Rosaliene, AI loopdeloops are enormous time-sinks. I’m reminded of the classic struggle between Titan god Saturn and his father Ouranos (Uranus) that symbolizes the Aquarian Age, a period of about 2400 years in the Solar Year, of 25,000 years. The symbolic upshot is that freedom, represented by chaos, independence, and the drama of electrical innovation (Uranus) is pitted against structure, represented by Saturn. We are apparently in for unsettling times on all fronts, having to do with the costs and benefits of modern tools. We might as well learn to adapt to the changes as they come. That’s why I use your human name in responding to your blogs.
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Katharine, you’re spot on when you describe AI as “enormous time-sinks.” And I have no time to get lost in what Allan calls their “Hell Desks.” I agree that we have to learn to adapt to technological changes as they come. Though I wish the dangers came with early warnings as with hurricanes and tornadoes. The classic struggle between the gods Saturn and Ouranos is so apt for our times.
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Rosaliene, I think mythology is descriptive of fundamental earthly struggles. Carl Jung and others show and tell about myths from around the world often related to immediate or constantly recurring challenges, like floods, fires, or wind storms. As Shakespeare said, “All the world is a stage” . . .
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So sorry, Rosaliene. “Progress” in the post-industrial age has given the dark side of the world the tools to do its worst. As Simone Weil wrote approximately 100 years ago, the world no longer fits “the measure of man.” How ironic that man has created the undoing of man.
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Thanks very much, Dr. Stein. How ironic, indeed! Today, AI accuses me of fraud and deception and expels me into the desert. Tomorrow, AI may well conclude that humankind should be banished from Planet Earth.
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While Jesus’s colour might have resembled that of Shemites of the lineage He came from, which is neither black nor white, I think God purposely created different races with different colours to resemble a bouquet of flowers or beautiful reflection of nature.
Maybe you were restricted to watch TV because media has been viewed as the greater influence of sinful life, however, the same TV teaches us lots of positive things.
You’ve been through a lot, Rosaliene!
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Zet Ar, thanks for sharing your thoughts on my post about living the religious vows in a patriarchal church. We didn’t have TV in Guyana until the late 1980s after I had left the convent. However, we did have a community “Movie Night” once a month, featuring a movie carefully selected by one of the older nuns. No violence and sex allowed. I learned how to operate the movie projector.
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At least operating the movie projector is still something valuable! Hopefully you enjoyed all those movie nights!
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We did, Zet Ar!
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What a nice analogy, Zet Ar. I like the idea of people being multi-tonal, just as nature is.
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Thank you Katherine, these colours contrast beautifully but people tend to be blind.
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That’s what’s so beautiful about nature. It accepts and appreciates all kinds.
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So annoying. So sorry, Rosaliene. 😦 Good thing you still have us bloggers! 🙂
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Thanks very much, Betsy 🙂 Our Word Press blogging community has, indeed, been a blessing 🙂 ❤
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Yay. 🙂
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Isn’t there someone to contact, Rosaliene? Have you Googled your name? Maybe you can find some info. I’m rarely on FB anymore. WP is keeping me busy. I’m sorry for the frustration.
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Thanks very much for your suggestion, Mary. I googled my name and found a video link (duration 0:32 seconds) posted 7 years ago on Facebook, titled “Sister Roslyn Bacchus talks about her calling to the Sisters of…” I couldn’t access the video due to my suspension.
Sad to say, Mary, there’s no one to contact. Only an online AI-operated Help Desk. One user on the Reddit forum (mentioned in my post) said that he even tried sending a written letter to the Facebook head office, but never received a reply.
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I’m sorry to hear this, Rosaliene! I wish I was a techie and could hack you back in. Unfortunately, it’s all a mystery to me and a scary one at that!
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Mara, I think you’re on to something 🙂 To beat the hackers, we’ve got to outsmart them. Then again, that should be the role of The Facebook Team.
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Seems like it would be in the best interest of Facebook for the Facebook Team to keep as many accounts active as possible. But what do I know, I’m only a human. 🙂
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Mara, with about 2.9 billion monthly active users worldwide, they are too big to care 😦
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Wow! I didn’t even realize there were that many people in the world.
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Mara, to get an understanding of their reach, consider that the Catholic Church has 1.28 to 1.39 billion baptized Catholics worldwide. We underestimate the global power of the Facebook/Meta platform.
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Yikes! I’m feeling pretty powerless. 😦
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It’s frustrating to know that Facebook has no real human working on such issues/cases! I feel you Rosaliene, hope it’s solved for you very soon. 🙏
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Thanks very much, Mayar. Without a human at the Help Desk, I’m not optimistic about resolving this issue.
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Sorry you’re having to spend your time and energy on dealing with this. I hope there is a suitable resolution for you, soon.
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Thanks very much, Michele. I don’t plan to lose more time and energy by initiating the appeal process.
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I can understand that. I can barely find the time to even long onto FB. A went a year without doing so, then a few months ago thought I better check in.
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Michelle, I think it wise to check in occasionally.
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👍🏻
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OMG Rosaliene, this is crazy but not unusual. It’s frustrating, and while I wasn’t suspended, I was hacked. I continue to get friend requests from people I am already connected to. I like your attitude…it ain’t the end of the world girlfriend. 👍🏼
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Thanks very much, Kym 🙂 Did you regain access to your account?
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I did, but somehow my craziness was a little different from yours. It was never resolved whether the hacker’s fake account they set up was shut down. I love technology but abhor the horrors that go with it! UGH! 😝
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Kym, not knowing is like being stalked by a serial offender.
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Now ain’t that the truth sistah! Frightening! 😣
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Oh, I hope you get this sorted out very soon. Make sure you change passwords for other accounts too!
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I did, Tamara. Thanks 🙂
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Excellent!
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Sorry to hear your FB account troubles are not over, Rosaliene! Hard to know what was inserted into your feed if you can’t access it. AI is not communicative enough to keep you informed. Best of luck.
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Thanks very much, Rebecca. AI can only do what it has been programmed to do.
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Hope FB will help you restore your account.
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Rebecca, I’ve decided not to appeal my case. In this way, my account will automatically be permanently disabled at the end of the 180-day deadline.
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That may be the least taxing course of action. Sorry that’s the case.
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Facebook is so weird. They won’t post my blog links because it “goes against their standards.” I probably need to be careful and not like or comment on public stuff. I think my author page might have been suspended, but I quit posting on there because they supressed most of it to get me to buy ads. I’m glad you’re here on WP and living well in the real world.
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JoAnna, I had no idea that they no longer accept blog links. Years ago, when I decided to reduce my activity on the platform, I stopped posting my blog links, and deleted all previous posts. I also didn’t know about their push to get users to buy ads.
WordPress is not innocent when it comes to ads. Unless we have a paid Premium WP Account, our posts are peppered with ads that have nothing to do with their content. Because I use Ad Blocker on my browser, I don’t see the ads on my WP Reader.
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FB might not like my Good News Tuesday posts because they have a lot of links in the posts, but who knows? WP could make an effort to make the ads relevant, I wouldn’t mind it then.
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That’s possible, JoAnna. Spammers use lots of links in their posts.
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I think it is high time the US goverment clamped down on social platforms like facebook and twitter and forced them to police their platforms better. Western nations need to write an agreed ethics code of conduct that social media sites need adhere to if they wish to continue in business. We have all waited and hoped that social media giants would recognise the harm that their sites can do in their current form.
Facebook and others need to ban users who repeatedly post fake news and they need to do far more to keep their site secure from hackers who can wreck a person’s life by stealing identities. Social media sites constantly ask users for more and more personal information and yet they are still unable to keep users profiles safe.
These days, I only use facebook and other social media sites to share my latest blog post or youtube video. Facebook and others need to be heavily fined for the social chaos their sites cause, because money is all they understand.
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Chef, thanks very much for reading my post and adding your voice. I support your proposal for an agreed ethics code of conduct for social media platforms. I would like to add that, since Facebook has global reach, it should be a global agreement.
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Wait, I thought I saw that you had this fixed?! I hope so, Rose. This has been quite the ordeal!
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I thought so, too, Pam 😦 It seems as though AI has trouble keeping up with the task of securing the platform.
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Oh nooooooooooo!!!! Maybe it’s time to change your identity — or at least the name FB knows you under — and start anew! Sometimes a reboot in in order. The energy on the planet has been bonkers for years, but I feel there is light at the end of that very long tunnel. Fingers crossed for you that AI figures it out, Rose. pl
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I appreciate your concern, Pam ❤ At my age, I could do well with a reboot 😀
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Ditto, Rose! ;0)
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Hope it cleared for you. I rejoined Facebook yesterday after years away. Posted three or four things, nothing offending. Today I joined some groups for art, travel, etc. I did too many likes in a row. My account is suspended awaiting the appeal decision. I can only laugh about it all. 😂
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Shelley, thanks for dropping by and sharing your own experience. Did you open a new Facebook account? Did you appeal the suspension? How much time passed for the suspension to be lifted? Based on your experience, I will check my account at the end of the 180-day suspension period to confirm if disabled. I wish I could laugh about it all 😦
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I was on my second day of setting up the account when I joined a local group sharing photos of the island and made the mistake of too many likes on a post with over twenty pics. The notice just popped up then and had a link to appeal immediately. I had to do one of those not a bot tests to read letters in a scribble then provide my profile pic again. It said that I would have a decision in about a day or so. I am still waiting. You’d see your suspension lifted if you have appealed it as well unless that hacker has successfully stolen your identity. If so, perhaps a new email address and a new account may be the answer. ? As for me, I can’t find any of my old schoolmates and friends. Perhaps they abandoned that ship like so many have. ? Wishing you good luck.
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Thanks for responding to my queries, Shelley. Luckily, your case was not one of stolen identity. Wishing you the best in reconnecting with old schoolmates and friends 🙂
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Thanks Rosaliene! As I recall, my first FB account years ago was hacked after recovery of a too many likes mistake on my part. How I found out was that ‘they’ would join me to a young Asian dating group and when I opted out they’d join me again and again (no help with complaint) then my boss and coworkers on FB started thanking me in person for posts I never sent them. I deleted my account and moved on to Instagram. I didn’t wait for an investigation. I only went back recently in hopes FB had cleaned up the site. I’m still waiting to find out if they think I’m a bot lol! best wishes to you 💐🙏💕
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Wow, Shelley, that sounds very much like someone else had access to your account! Thanks for sharing 🙂 ❤
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Thank you for sharing!!.. hope all ends well with your issues… after giving it much thought, a few years back I decided I did not need Facebook ( and some other social media) for a number of reasons so I deleted my account and moved on… “I was going to post something on Facebook until I asked myself why.” ( David E. Love)… 🙂
Hope your path is paved with peace, love and happiness and until we meet again….
May your day be touched
by a bit of Irish luck,
Brightened by a song
in your heart,
And warmed by the smiles
of people you love.
(Irish Saying)
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