Banned from Facebook for violating messaging limits. What now?
February 2, 2007 5:14 PM   Subscribe

I accidentally violated the Facebook Terms of Service by sending too much mail. Am I now stuffed in regards to getting my account back?

Here's the deal. My friend Sarah had joined a group based around her family surname, so inspired by this, I created one based on my family name.

I found around 70 people with the same surname as them and went about sending a facebook message asking them to join my group.

What I had done was not spam - the mails were genuine, non-commercial - despite the quantity, and sent as a sort of gimmick more than anything else.

I fired off all the contacts with my surname into tabs in Mozilla and went about cutting and pasting subjects and the message bodies, tailoring each one as I went along to the individual. I then cycled over the tabs again, filling in the CAPTCHA's, clicking Send and moving on to the next tab.

Unfortunately, around 15 tabs back there were warnings that I was reaching the send limit followed by a notice that my account has been disabled.

So basically, I'm boned, and I totally understand why (such vigilance on Facebook's part is understandable, almost commendable considering the spammification of other social networks). In my head I was thinking surely the CAPTCHA security check would suffice and the send limit never entered my head.

Basically, does anyone have any experience with Facebook Customer Services, and does anyone know how likely it would be that I'd get my account back?

Please please don't lay into me on this one. I know I've screwed up here. :S
posted by rc55 to Computers & Internet (7 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
A friend of mine was canned from Facebook for, apparantly, creating too many jokey facebook groups (who knew?) He did get his account back, after a brief cooling-off period - I don't really know what the timeline was.
posted by muddgirl at 5:41 PM on February 2, 2007


If they cut you off because their system flags you as a spammer, you may have to contact them to prove your identity before they will reactivate your account. Send them an e-mail and see.
posted by roomwithaview at 5:52 PM on February 2, 2007


Best answer: They kicked me off for sending spam emails (also for pretending to be Barack Obama), but I was back on within a couple days after sending a pleading email to them. Just promise to never do it again.
posted by maxreax at 6:21 PM on February 2, 2007 [1 favorite]


Yup, just say you messed up and won't repeat it -- probably what you told us here would be good enough. One of my friends got in trouble with them but they just said don't do it again.

Could you not just invite them to the group?
posted by SuperNova at 9:31 PM on February 2, 2007


Response by poster: I think they have to be an existing friend of yours if you want to invite them. I'm not certain though!
posted by rc55 at 6:08 AM on February 3, 2007


If you are the group admin, you can certainly invite them. Just be prepared for a lot of typing of names (you have to search up each individual non-friend you want to invite). But since a lot of typing is what got you banned in the first place, so to speak, that probably isn't a problem.
posted by Gnatcho at 1:11 PM on February 3, 2007


Response by poster: I've been allowed back on! Huzzah - and props to Facebook for their timely responses! :D

A lesson learned...
posted by rc55 at 11:41 AM on February 4, 2007


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