It’s official.
I’m now an outcast from modern society, a pariah of current culture, a man without a profile.
I’ve been permanently banned from Facebook.
And I’m okay with that.
In my last post, I shared how I received notice from Facebook that my account was suspended, for reasons that were a mystery to me. I was given 30 days to appeal, a process that must begin with me uploading my state ID to Facebook. This is something I would not do.
Since then, things have gotten more interesting, in an alarming sort of way.
I began to receive emailed receipts for ads placed on Facebook. There were two simple reasons why I could not have placed these ads:
- I had been locked out of my account for more than three weeks.
- The descriptions of the ads were in a language I don’t understand. (In fact, I can’t even tell what language it is.)
This shed some light on the situation. It appears that somebody in a foreign land had hijacked my account and done something with it to get me expelled from the platform. The brilliant minds at Facebook swung into action and barred the true owner of the account while apparently allowing the pirates to access the account freely and, as a bonus perk, to also run fraudulent ads on it. They weren’t getting any ad revenue from the rightful owner, so why not?
I found generic email addresses for Facebook departments online. I also found one reference to a phone number, but this was explained as the number that tells you not to try calling Facebook when you dial it. It seems that Facebook wants to hear from you in only one way, and that is the way that begins with you giving them more personal data about yourself. This personal data could easily end up in the hands of the new owners of your account, but even if it doesn’t, the prying eyes of Facebook would still have it.
I sent emails to all the Facebook addresses I found. In them, I explained the situation. I did not ask for my account to be reinstated. Now, I was sure I wanted it deleted, and the sooner the better. That was my best hope for making it useless to criminals. I don’t expect that any of the emails were ever read, but you’ve got to try.
I tried to log into my account again. Not surprisingly, I still couldn’t. When I click the button to close the app, I was warned that I had only one day left to appeal before my account was permanently disabled. I’m sure this was meant as some sort of threat, but I saw it as my only hope. I hoped it wasn’t an idle threat.
I’ve stopped getting the ad receipts. My account is beyond the appeal period. If that’s the end of it, I’m grateful to be done with Facebook. My only regret is that last Christmas I bought my boys an Oculus VR headset. It ran off my Facebook account; Oculus has alerted me that we will lose all the games we bought for it. The consolation is it wasn’t a huge hit with the boys and we didn’t spend a ton on games. And when I think back, it wouldn’t be the first time money spent on gifts for the kids was wasted.
In conclusion, I will not be accepting any more Facebook friends.
Snoozing on the Sofa 
Wow! That escalated rather quickly, I think. I’m glad you found out what the problem was, though I wish FB had given you a way to respond freely rather than in only one direction.
I had my account shut down over saying “thank you” too many times to people who told me happy birthday. I was told I was closed (not suspended or warned, but CLOSED) due to spamming. I finally got it back after finding some email to let them know that I was unemployed, and a job connection for references was in that account.
It took me 6 weeks to get it reopened; but I did manage it. I looked for that email account that I used, but it was back in 2007, and I don’t have that information anymore.
I did open a second account under my maiden name, though. I still have it, too.
I sincerely hope you didn’t lose anything else that was significant.
As long as my name is not now tied to a criminal enterprise then I didn’t lose anything valuable. Not anything I know about anyway. As soon as WP kicks me out for one thing or another, I think I’ll be done with social media for good.
I never liked Facebook. First, I felt like I was forced to leave MySpace behind (which I liked so much more) because EVERYONE moved to FB. Strike 1. Then, I just wasn’t the time to really utilize it. Just kept it to get in touch every now and again with people I otherwise wouldn’t. So, I barely used it. Then, I got hacked and had to prove that I was the owner with all sorts of personal info like you mentioned. No, thank you. For a split second, I wondered if I should make a new one, but realized that it was a gift – so I didn’t. I am free of FB and am very happy about that.
You’re right. There is a certain freedom in being removed from these accounts. I was never a very good FB friend to anybody anyways.
Good Bye…
.
.
.
to facebook— that is
Keep it real!
WordPress and real life is all I got left.
What more do you need?
No tik tok, instagram, twitter for me either.
I have enough drama… at home.
😄
I can live without any of them, except real life.
No loss as I see it, Scott. I’ve never liked FB and have refused to have anything to do with it. Sorry to hear all the trouble you have been put through and again sorry your boys lost out on games. Yet you are FREE now of the appalling platform FB has become. The only platform I engage with is WP. I believe in living LIFE not through a phone but through real experience. You are much better off without FB. Bye-bye!
Amy, I never used it much when I had it, so it should be no surprise that I haven’t missed it much. Life goes on.
Oh yes it does. And it is everything what one makes of it as well.
You tell the truth, Amy.
Scott, that is probably the biggest compliment anyone can give me. THANK YOU. In a world where lies are accepted as truth, to be told I tell the truth, is a rarity. Bless you!!! xo
You’re welcome, Amy. You are one of the good ones.
I have heard of this happening to a number of people Scott, especially in more recent days. The frustration of actually trying to contact someone to correct things seems ridiculously complicated and in all cases, absolutely useless! Geesh, just when I was going to send you a friend request too! Oh well, I’ll just have to read about your shenanigans here!
Since Big Corporate Media knows everything about everyone these days, they certainly know I’m not much of a social butterfly and probably feared that I had more “friends” than I can handle. Naturally, they expelled me for my own good.