Discovering that your Facebook account has been hacked or suspended can be a distressing experience. However, there are steps you can take to regain control and restore your account’s security. In my case, it took me almost 2 months to recover my account and it happened while I was in class!
So here I am, sharing my journey and the methods I tried to recover my Facebook account, which was almost ‘permanently suspended’ due to hacking. This might help those who are in the same country (Philippines) as me or facing a similar situation.
I emailed Facebook Support using an old ticket number
I was desperate. I couldn’t find a way to contact them. The only solution I found online is to pay P499/month or $14.99 USD to get Meta Verified and to be able to contact their support. It took me a 3-4 sleepless nights to finally decide. I was furious and it felt like a scam. Why on earth would I need to pay a subscription fee just to get help from a platform I use every single day, a company that rakes in profits from users because of their paid ads? It’s completely unfair! So, I sourced the internet, trying every email address I could find.
Here are the first 3 email I found on Google: records@fb.com, support@fb.com, press@fb.com
The first email I sent them:
Did I get a response from these email addresses? NO. It made me feel hopeless each day.
Hello,
I did not receive any notification regarding my Facebook account being logged in, unlinked with my personal Instagram Account which is xxx.
I already talked to a support from Instagram and the only information they can provide is that they already disabled the hacker’s account on Instagram. The hacker’s account user qxerzanhthv7tfy7d. That is not me. That is not mine. I did not authorise this account to be linked on my Facebook Account “xxx” or “xxx”.
Kindly help. I can provide all the documents you need for you to be able to verify my account and unlink it from the Instagram account user.
I am hoping that someone from Facebook can help me with this issue.
Sincerely,xxx
This made me think of more ways to contact them. Then I remembered I had an unsolved ticket, and the support’s unique email is case++aazq2ptgs46cu6@support.facebook.com. It was a ticket from 2022 and yes that’s how slow their customer service is. However, I felt so lucky that I had an unsolved issue with Facebook because I received a response after a few minutes! The support even called me the following night. I explained everything over the call, even though I knew she already knew my problem because after the very first response I received from Facebook, I sent them a video, not just screenshots, along with the information they were asking for (email attached below).
From Facebook Support:
During my conversation with Facebook Support, I made the following notes:
- She expressed uncertainty regarding the possibility of recovering my account.
- She was unable to provide insight into the reasons for the hacking or how the hacker circumvented the two-factor authentication.
- She could not confirm whether my account had been permanently suspended or not. I acknowledge the complexity of the situation from their perspective, considering the potential for misidentification, a realization I only came to after my account was reinstated.
- She directed me to https://www.facebook.com/hacked to initiate account recovery while we were on the phone. At that moment, I felt a renewed sense of hope.
But boy oh boy…
I waited. Three days had passed, and still, there was no update. Nothing. I felt hopeless once again. So, I sent another follow-up email to Audrey, including additional information downloaded from my Facebook account.
The second email I sent to Facebook:
And yes, this is dramatic. Perhaps too dramatic for an email. I had to swallow my pride and show no anger to convince them that I am the owner of the said account. Because in their eyes, you’re still the suspect on the other side of the screen. The hacker.
