Things That Happen When You Stir the Pot for Fake Admins
Contact Facebook Support & help center is one of many Facebook groups created by what I assume are shady fraudulent forces, which might not necessarily be after your account but rather your money. Often, when you contact them, they promise the moon – fully restored Facebook accounts and more. Many try to appear legitimate with screenshots like “Congratulations, your account has been restored,” but the flaws in both their evidence and legitimacy are plenty.
What surprises me in this case is that the group has over ten thousand users without any action being taken. One might assume that a large portion of these users are part of a botnet, as new victims seeking help continuously join the group. Some “helpfully” suggest whom to contact for assistance, while others claim they can provide help themselves.
So, what happens if you start stirring the pot in the group?
Well, first of all, to make sure we’re safe, we’re going to try reporting the group’s administrators. Many of these types of groups are usually locked from posting new content unless approved by an administrator. So, trying to remove the administrators can be vital to “shutting down” a group without Facebook needing to delete it. If fake news is being posted in the group and the administrators are gone, those fake news posts will also stop. However, in this case, the group was completely open.
In this instance, I began systematically reporting everyone claiming to be an admin for Meta. It didn’t take long before all the administrators were removed by Facebook.
As soon as the administrators were removed, the way was clear to play around.
So I started a new thread.
At that same moment the thread was created, I got a lot of new suggestions of who to get contacted to get more help… Help with what, you ask? Yeah, I did so too.
After reporting it to Facebook, I believe Archie now has bigger problems with the same issue he claims to help others with. I guess he will fix that in a moment and return to answer my question…
Robert was another “hacker” claimed to be helpful, but instead of normal communication he seems to have offered some kind of massage. I guess he won’t be able to explain what he means, since that account disappeared shortly after telling him this. Still wondering if he was the brother of Kevin.
In summary, the moral of the story – if you ever encounter issues with your Facebook account, do not reach out to these groups for help. If you do decide to engage with them, make it your mission to report anyone who offers you help. There isn’t a single legitimate account in these groups that could actually assist you.
Another way to get real help is to try getting your account verified as authentic. You can read more about that here: https://about.meta.com/technologies/meta-verified/
Not only will you get a “blue tick” on your account, but this also grants access to genuine live support directly from Facebook/Meta – although, for now, this support is apparently limited to mobile-to-Messenger requests. While there are many helpful and legitimate support representatives at Facebook/Meta, their services are quite limited. Most support revolves around your personal account or your business account, and the questions you can ask are generally confined to your account or your operations.
That said, I imagine that if you encountered more significant issues, such as a suspended account, you could likely get help with that as well. However, accessing the support function can be a challenge in itself, and how well it works (or doesn’t work) is beyond the scope of this story.
