Account disabled because of 419 Money Transfer Scam

Hello, i've been reading through the threads on the forums and seeing that a few people have been successful in re-enabling their Facebook accounts after persistent communications with Facebook.

I was a victim of a 419 Money Transfer Scam back in late July and as a result my account has been "temporarily" suspended and unaccessible. Not only do I use the account for personal uses, I use Facebook for continuous networking and to manage multiple business pages for my company, as well as, a few pages and groups. Now since my account is disabled I cannot access those groups or pages to update and respond to requests to join, post to the wall, etc. This is very frustrating and becoming an issue at my company.

More of what has happened to my account since July 29th.

1. my account was hacked and used to send out Money Transfer Scam messages, so was my gmail account. I've resolved the gmail issue almost immediately. it seems they are more apt to respond and reactivate an account than FB is. i secured my gmail account and removed the Forwarding rule that the hackers added to the account.

2. I DID regain access to my Facebook account for a short period of time and reviewed the security, permissions and email address. I also setup the feature to alert me to NEW LOGINs which is great.

3. I woke up on July 31st to find that Facebook had disabled my account since it was used by scammers. (But I had just regained access to it only hours prior)

I'm still without access and see that a few people on this forum have had success in having their accounts turned back on since they were also innocent victims of account hacking.

are there any things that I need to do to contact Facebook via forms (which I've filled out a few times) or what I should be saying when I email them.

Also, i read to send to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] but received a "Delivery Delayed" message the other day. hope that account is still valid.

thanks for any info you can give me.

Hi tinch72,

tinch72 wrote:3. I woke up on July 31st to find that Facebook had disabled my account since it was used by scammers. (But I had just regained access to it only hours prior)

What messages / screens are you getting from Facebook when you try to login? (ie. What do you see?)

Please also confirm for us that you can still send and receive mails using the email address you have associated with Facebook and that you have changed the Password on that email account

When did you last run full computer scans with your Antivirus and protection programs ?

yes, i've changed my gmail account password to a unique/strong password and also checked gmail and secured the account.

ran both a virus and malware scan on all computers i use within the past 2 days. (which is 2 weeks after my account was hacked)


the message i get when trying to log into account is

Our systems indicate that your Facebook account may have been compromised by cybercriminals attempting to impersonate you. We have temporarily disabled this account in order to prevent further abuse. When cybercriminals gain access to a Facebook account, they may use it to impersonate the account holder, getting friends to send them money through a money transfer service. This is known as a "money transfer" or "419" scam. They often use chat or status updates to claim that they are stuck in a far away location and need assistance.

These cybercriminals will often gain access to your Facebook account through an associated email account. Make sure to select new and unique passwords for any email accounts you own.

If you would like to regain access to your account, please contact us here.

I note you say you have used several computers to log into Facebook (?)


Are you presently using just one known private clean computer to try to regain access to Facebook ?

yes, I will only be accessing Facebook from one clean computer at home.

i have been using home and office computers lately. is that an issue? I stopped trying 2 weeks ago with my iPhone until this gets resolved.

also, i received this email from Facebookmail.com and wanted to know if this is legit or another Phishing attempt against my account. from what i've read online "facebookmail.com" is domain registered with Facebook.

the message is from
from Facebook
reply-to Facebook
subject Getting back onto Facebook
mailed-by facebookmail.com
signed-by facebookmail.com

the link in the email and button point to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (i removed my email)


Hi Jeff,
Sorry you've been having trouble logging into your Facebook account.
[Get back on Facebook now] (<-- button)

You can also get password help or login help on Facebook.
Thanks,
The Facebook Team

tinch72 wrote:yes, I will only be accessing Facebook from one clean computer at home.

i have been using home and office computers lately. is that an issue? I stopped trying 2 weeks ago with my iPhone until this gets resolved.

Yes in my opinion it is; you know how clean ( or not) your own personal computer is; you have no idea how clean ( or not) the work computers are ..............


that email appears to be legit; have you yet tried the link it gave?

i'm technical so I run virus and malware scans regularly at home and in the office, but you're right, i have more ability to make sure my HOME PC is free and clear of virus, worms, trojans, etc. which it is. Running AVG for anti-virus and then ran both SUPERAntiSpyware and Advanced System Care to remove stuff.

as for the email message, yes, i attempted it and it took me to a login screen where I enter my account email and password. I then get the message that my account has been disabled. I click the more info link and it still is the page with the 419 Money Transfer scam message

How long might it take Facebook support to get to my reactivation form? just thought you guys on this forum might know.
thanks!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Security: Money transfer scamHide All
My account is being used by someone telling my friends that I am stuck in a far away location and need assistance.

If cybercriminals gain access to a Facebook account, they can often use it to impersonate the account holder to trick their friends into sending money through a money transfer service. This is called the money transfer scam, the advance-fee fraud, or the 419 scam. They often use chat or status updates to claim that they are stuck in a far away location and need assistance.

If cybercriminals have impersonated you by claiming you are stuck in a far away location and need assistance, please do the following:

1. Review all email accounts listed on your Facebook account, and check them for unauthorized access.
2. Change the passwords to all your email accounts. Make sure that your email password and Facebook account passwords are different, and that both are different from other passwords you use elsewhere on the internet.
3. Check the Preferences/Settings of your email account to make sure the scammer did not add any unauthorized forwarding rules to your email.
4. Fill out the form here if you still feel unsure about your account security or cannot access your account to change the password.

Have a look on that link and see what you need to do security wise on the Facebook Account and on your computer ....

You may wish to add this to your Protection package .....

Malwarebytes

Download [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and save it to your Desktop.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

MBAM may "make changes to your registry" as part of its disinfection routine. If using other security programs that detect registry changes (ie Spybot's Teatimer), they may interfere or alert you.

• Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
  
• Double-click on mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
  
  
• When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
  
• When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
  
  
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
    
  • Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
    
  
  
• Then click Finish.
  

MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan.

• If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue.
  
  
  

On the Scanner tab:

• Make sure the "Perform Quick Scan" option is selected.
  
• Then click on the Scan button.
  
• If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
  
• The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
  
• When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
  
• Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.
  

Back at the main Scanner screen:

• Click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
  
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
  
• When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad.
  
• The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
  
  
• Exit MBAM when done.
  

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be asked to reboot your computer so MBAM can proceed with the disinfection process. If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot normally (not into safe mode) will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware.

Try a scan with it and see what if finds maybe?

Well i think just waiting is what "fixed" my issue. Facebook finally responded to one of my first messages to them after filling out the 419 Money Transfer form. Maybe there was a huge backlog of users that were affected by the scam and Facebook support was just taking care of them one by one.

for those people that get your accounts disabled there is hope -- even though you may NOT think so (like me).

- Do make sure you use a secured computer that is virus, worm, trojan free.
- send emails to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] POLITELY explaining what happened and what you've done to secure your email and other accounts.
- be patient (this is the hardest step)

tinch72 wrote:Well i think just waiting is what "fixed" my issue. Facebook finally responded to one of my first messages to them after filling out the 419 Money Transfer form. Maybe there was a huge backlog of users that were affected by the scam and Facebook support was just taking care of them one by one.

for those people that get your accounts disabled there is hope -- even though you may NOT think so (like me).

- Do make sure you use a secured computer that is virus, worm, trojan free.
- send emails to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] POLITELY explaining what happened and what you've done to secure your email and other accounts.- be patient (this is the hardest step)

exactly!!

good to hear you are now back in

Solved with glee!!