Recently, my personal Facebook account (facebook.com/kivus) was disabled. If anyone can help me with this issue, I would really appreciate it. A full explanation of the situation (which I have sent to Facebook / Meta support) is included below to explain what is going on. I removed some of the information from the post that was too much over the line regarding personally identifiable information.
Vivian,
Thank you for your email. I am preparing a more complete summary of the situation related to ticket number REDACTED to hopefully resolve this issue and get me back access to my personal Facebook account that I established more than 15 years ago.
Respectfully, I request that you escalate this issue further using this additional information to try and resolve this problem and re-enable my Facebook account.
- SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION:
- My personal Facebook account, facebook.com/kivus, which has my name John Kivus and is registered to my email address REDACTED is currently disabled.
- The reason my account is disabled is because of the supposedly “linked” Instagram account “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” violating community guidelines.
- The “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account is not my account, has never been my account, I do not have access to that account, and it is not currently linked to my Facebook / Meta account.
- I believe the “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account was temporarily and fraudulently added to my Facebook / Meta accounts on April 25.
- The listed account is clearly a SPAM account that is completely inconsistent with my Facebook, Instagram, and Meta activities over the past decade-plus. And, again, it is NOT actually linked to my Facebook account.
- I cannot use Facebook’s appeals form to ask for access to my account because the issue is related to a supposed Instagram account that is NOT LINKED to my account.
- I cannot use Instagram’s appeals form to ask for access to my account because I do not have access to the fraudulent Instagram account.
- I am Meta Verified for my actual Instagram.com/kivus account so Facebook has records of my actual identity
- BACKGROUND AND HISTORY
- My Facebook Account
I believe I established my Facebook account in or about 2005-2006. Since that time, I have used it mainly for keeping in touch with existing friends and family, as well as making some new friends and (at various periods) joining groups related to my interests.
Some very important life events are archived on my Facebook page, including my wedding and histories of personal struggles such as my wife’s battle with brain cancer.
There are also a variety of photos, comments, notes, and other information that has collected on my profile over the years.
In addition to my Facebook account, I also have a personal Instagram account (instagram.com/kivus) and I manage the Instagram account of my local Rotary club (https://www.instagram.com/crabtreerotary/). These are the only accounts in my Meta profile, as shown by this screenshot:
As demonstrated by this screenshot, there is no Instagram profile “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” linked to my account. Given the username of the account, “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” is clearly a SPAM account.
I have a 15+ year history of using Facebook and Instagram and a review of that usage will make it clear that I have zero history of violating community guidelines.
My instagram.com/kivus is Meta Verified. In other words, Meta has reviewed a copy of my ID and confirmed my identity.
- Strange Account Activity on or about April 25, 2023
At approximately 4am Eastern on April 25, 2023, I received a notification on my mobile phone that someone was trying to log into my Facebook account from outside of the United States. I immediately changed the password to my account as shown in this email:
At the time, I thought I had resolved any issue related to whatever happened regarding a potential login to my account.
I now believe that–somehow–someone was able to temporarily link the fraudulent “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account to my personal Facebook account before I changed the password. The fraudulent “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account is NOT my account. I have never used it, posted from it, managed it, or had any level of access to it.
The “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account is NOT linked in my Meta Account manager as shown by this screenshot:
My Facebook account has never had any issues with “community guidelines.” My only two Instagram accounts (instagram.com/kivus and instagram.com/crabtreerotary) have never had any issues with “community guidelines” on either of those accounts. As stated above, my instagram.com/kivus account is Meta Verified.
- Personal Facebook Account is Disabled
On the morning of April 26, 2023, I received a notification that my Facebook app on my phone required me to “re-login.” When I tried to enter my username and password, I was presented with the following message that my account has been disabled:
I was very confused about this message. The listed Instagram account “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” is NOT my account, has NEVER been my account, and I have NO ACCESS to that account.
I tried to use the various resources at the Instagram help center to see if there was something I could do in order to fix this issue, but none of them worked because “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” is not my account and I have no access to it.
III. Efforts to Resolve the Issue via Meta Forms and Chat Support are not Working
- I cannot submit an appeal via the Facebook form since the issue is related to an Instagram account.
In your email, you suggest that I “submit the appeal on this article link: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/logout?id=260749603972907.”
Because my account is disabled based on that fraudulent Instagram account (which, again, is NOT my account and NOT an account I have access to), I cannot use this form to appeal. Here is the error message I get when trying to use the form: [ IMAGE NOT INCLUDED SINCE IT HAS PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION BUT IT SAYS THE FORM CANNOT BE USED BECAUSE OF THE INSTAGRAM VIOLATION ]
I similarly cannot appeal the decision via the Facebook mobile app since the issue relates to a fraudulent Instagram account and the Facebook mobile does not present me with an appeal option.
- I cannot submit any forms to Instagram since I do not have access to the fraudulent Instagram account.
As I have explained throughout this write-up, the fraudulent Instagram account “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” is not my account, has never been my account, and is not linked to my Meta profile. As a reminder, here are my actual Meta accounts (with the Kivus Instagram account being Meta Verified):
As you can see from this Account Center screenshot, there is no “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account listed in my Meta profile.
Since the “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” is not my account, I cannot log into it and delete it, edit it, or do anything related to it.
I also do not want to appeal any decision regarding the “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account. I have no opinion on whether or not it violated community guidelines The big issue is the fraudulent “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account is NOT MY ACCOUNT and it is NOT LINKED to my Meta accounts. I believe the “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account was temporarily (and fraudulently) linked to my Facebook account during that strange activity on April 25, 2023 described above. Again, “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” is NOT LINKED to my Facebook / Meta accounts.
C. My Kivus Instagram Account is Meta Verified but Meta Support has not been able to Resolve the Issue (Yet)
Since my Kivus Instagram account (instagram.com/kivus) is Meta verified, I tried to use chat support to resolve the issue. My representative, Sho, was extremely helpfulm but I eventually had to go to my office for work commitments. At that point, Sho said the matter would be escalated a manager.
I was hopeful a review of the record of my account would resolve the issue, but when I received your email last night, Vivian, I was dismayed. I hope that receiving this additional information will help you resolve the issue or escalate it to someone out can.
IV. Request for Review and Re-Enabling my Facebook Account
Respectfully, I request that this issue be escalated to someone who can evaluate the information I have provided and then re-enable my account.
As I explained in detail above, I believe this fraudulent Instagram account (xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw) was temporarily added to my Facebook / Meta on April 25. The xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw account was never my account, I have never had access to it, and it is not currently linked to my Facebook / Meta accounts, which only include:
I believe someone reviewing just the username of the account will be able to clearly see that it is a fraudulent account (it’s just a list of random letters).
I also believe someone looking at my accounts and history over the past years will clearly see that I have no affiliation with the fraudulent “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account and that it was a SPAM / fraudulent account that temporarily associated itself with my Facebook account for some reason. Again, the “xhongphuong.thuyloanebfuw” account is NOT LINKED to my Facebook account, despite my Facebook account being disabled for that reason:
Also, as further proof of who I am, my Instagram account is Meta verified. Assuming this issue can be resolved and my Facebook account is re-enabled, I will also pay to get my Facebook account “verified” to prevent this kind of issue from happening in the future.
V. Summary
Thank you for your time in reviewing these materials. I hope I have provided you all the information you need to evaluate this issue and re-enable my account. If you have follow-up questions, though, please do not hesitate to reach out. You can also contact me via telephone at REDACTED to discuss the matter, if helpful.
Thanks
