Banned from Facebook Ads?

[MarkJ321]

I've never knowingly done anything fraudulent within my Facebook ads account and I've been using it for about 3 months without issues. Yet, out of the blue I received this email today:

Our security systems have detected suspected fraudulent activity on your account and have shut down the payments functionality as a result. For this reason, you will no longer be able to make purchases on Facebook. This decision is final. For security reasons, we cannot provide you with the specific actions that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (xxxx://xxx.facebook.com/terms.php) and Payment Terms (xxxx://xxx.facebook.com/terms.php#!/payments_terms/) if you have further questions.

I can no longer use Facebook Ads and the wording they've used in the email suggests to me that no matter what I say/do I'm not getting it back...
I quote "This decision is final".

And it appears I'm not allowed to question them about why it happened...
I quote "For security reasons, we cannot provide you with the specific actions that have been deemed abusive"

Has anyone else experienced something similar? And what can I do about it?

Thanks

[Rich Struck]

It doesn't sound like there is anything you can do. I'll never understand why so many big companies take this approach to dealing with their customers. For all they know, a 2 minute phone call could have cleared this all up but instead now they have one less customer. It makes no sense.

[Roaddog]

Originally Posted by Rich Struck

It doesn't sound like there is anything you can do. I'll never understand why so many big companies take this approach to dealing with their customers. .

Because they can!


Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Until Google and Facebook get some kind of worthy competition,
they will dictate.

Jim

[MarkJ321]

Originally Posted by Rich Struck

It doesn't sound like there is anything you can do. I'll never understand why so many big companies take this approach to dealing with their customers. For all they know, a 2 minute phone call could have cleared this all up but instead now they have one less customer. It makes no sense.

Unfortunately It looks like you're right. I feel there's some under-lying reason why they don't want me and It's nothing to do with fraud, but I can't think what It could be, I've never done anything against their T&Cs.

[daangertenaar]

I agree with Roaddog, the big guys dominate.

[Mo Goulet]

I don't want to sound condescending but have you checked to see if this has happened?

Are your payment links disabled?

Have you searched the help files or even attempted to contact them?

Did they message you or send you an email?

I'd look into this a bit deeper.

[MarkJ321]

Originally Posted by proapc

I don't want to sound condescending but have you checked to see if this has happened?

Are your payment links disabled?

Have you searched the help files or even attempted to contact them?

Did they message you or send you an email?

I'd look into this a bit deeper.

Thanks for the reply.

There was an issue with my card yesterday, it got blocked by the bank, not my fault, they've done it before because they suspect someone has access to my card details (it's because I make payments on a lot of different websites, this triggers alarms with bank security systems, understandable). Unfortunately during the the 4-5 hours my card was blocked before I rang the bank and sorted it out Facebook tried to take an automatic payment from me for ads and it got declined, my Facebook ads where paused.

As soon as I sorted out the card I went onto Facebook and made the payment manually, my ads then resumed, all seemed well...

Today I check my FB Ads account and I get a big red message saying something like "Payments have been disabled on this account and you will no longer be able to use Ads, please contact us (link to contact form) for more info." So I sent them a nice message through the form asking what had happened, their reply, via email was what I've put in the first post.

I've emailed them back asking politely for an explanation but they haven't replied (sent the email over 4 hours ago).

[Harlan]

Write back during the week. There will be a different team answering the emails.

I've found Facebook very responsive and good to deal with.

[MarkJ321]

Originally Posted by Harlan

Write back during the week. There will be a different team answering the emails.

I've found Facebook very responsive and good to deal with.

I'll try that, thanks for the suggestion.

[KConstantin]

i had this happen to me..and in the end i was able to get my account back. if you cant figure out anything then let me know and i can help you out.

[vok]

You have to remember that the people that work at Facebook are still human. It's highly likely that it's some kind of automated system, that deals with all that kind of thing anyway.

Mistakes do happen and Facebook may believe that their fraud algorithm is perfect, but untill you contact them you'll never no if it was a human or a machine that disabled your account.

[ryder553]

The same exact think happened to me.
Does anyone have a solution for this? I'd very much appreciate it!

[Ben Armstrong]

Originally Posted by Roaddog

Because they can!


Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Until Google and Facebook get some kind of worthy competition,
they will dictate.

Jim

Why don't more people use Bing or Yahoo's equivalent of Adwords? Assuming the have them.

I don't know much about PPC etc.

[SocialMediaOwls]

My reaction would be....

You mean I can keep my money and use it more wisely on other PPC networks? Cool!

[Targeted Traffic]

Originally Posted by Harlan

Write back during the week. There will be a different team answering the emails.

I've found Facebook very responsive and good to deal with.

Yes, I do agree...if you can present yourself innocent and definitely a professional then I'm sure you can get your account back.

[Alyona The Publicist]

I think facebook ads are a bit overpriced, even compared to adwords

[barligea]

Make new account just for the ads with new ad, new page, and new cc

[barligea]

And yes I agree , FB ads are overpriced compared to Adwords and they seem to convert less. FB clicks are more curiosity clicks

[vok]

Any real business person who cares about their business will be on the phone right away, and getting the issue resolved. They write that email because a lot of people will just roll over and get their tummy tickled and most people won't bother fighting back. They know the serious advertisers will be blowing up their phone lines as soon as anything like that happens.

[Chris Worner]

Originally Posted by Rich Struck

It doesn't sound like there is anything you can do. I'll never understand why so many big companies take this approach to dealing with their customers. For all they know, a 2 minute phone call could have cleared this all up but instead now they have one less customer. It makes no sense.

Actually it makes perfect sense. Despite what many marketers egos might lead them to believe, it is the small guy's who create the most problems that cost the most to deal with and take the most time to solve.

This is true of all advertising platforms, Adwords etc.

I laugh, and so must the risk departments of all these companies that provide advertising and payments processing such as PayPal and Facebook, every time a marketer complains about being banned despite paying heaps of fees to X company(often times a negligible amount of money compared to bigger clients, $4000 a month for example), all the while failing to realize the reason they were banned was because the risk and other costs they created far outweighed any profits generated off said marketer.

Ever heard of the 80/20 principle? Focus on the 20% of customers who generate 80% of your income, although it can be argued that it is more 90/10 depending who you ask.

@OP

Did you read the ToS and did you make sure you were in full compliance?

Chris

[ryder553]

Originally Posted by barligea

Make new account just for the ads with new ad, new page, and new cc

I did that, but they banned me two days later for a "fake account".
Now I can't use either of my two CCs on Facebook ads!

[BloggingPro]

Originally Posted by Rich Struck

It doesn't sound like there is anything you can do. I'll never understand why so many big companies take this approach to dealing with their customers. For all they know, a 2 minute phone call could have cleared this all up but instead now they have one less customer. It makes no sense.

In their eyes they probably view that customer as replaceable anyway, so to them a lost customer today will easily be replaced tomorrow.

Many companies think this way. When I worked at Disneyland you have no idea how many managers had this mentality. "It has to come from somewhere," I would think to myself. Pretty much summed up that it was from the top level executives--behind closed doors that is.

For every Guest that felt pissed on and never returned five more would come through the gate after them.

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by MarkJ321

I can no longer use Facebook Ads and the wording they've used in the email suggests to me that no matter what I say/do I'm not getting it back...
I quote "This decision is final".

And it appears I'm not allowed to question them about why it happened...
I quote "For security reasons, we cannot provide you with the specific actions that have been deemed abusive"

Has anyone else experienced something similar? And what can I do about it?

Thanks

Nothing you can do ... they said there's nothing you can do. And nothing we can do. So you're done with Facebook Ads.

[Matthew Loop]

Ouch... not good. Facebook usually gives a warning or two before banning you unless you're totally abusing the system. I actually have an account manager assigned to me and I just email or set-up a call if I have questions. I agree with Harlan, as I've found it easy to connect and the replies are usually prompt.

You could always open a new account and run the ad there. If you have a new card, I wouldn't see why you'd have issues.

[michaelhearne]

welcome to the club!

Chris is right - facebook could fire 80% of their ad buyers and keep 80% of their revenues with way less hassles...

good luck getting your account back...

maybe a better option is to spend it somewhere else - like solo ads...

[onegoodman]

I am shocked, I didn't know Facebook would ban anyone specially advertisers. Honestly, I have no experience getting banned on facebook and I am not intending too.

It is a shame that they follow this stupid method, Advertiser = Seller and seller is always right but apparently not in their world

[celente]

Originally Posted by Ben Armstrong

Why don't more people use Bing or Yahoo's equivalent of Adwords? Assuming the have them.

I don't know much about PPC etc.

We do not invest a lot of time in PPC, because our free traffic methods are doing well.

But We do find yahoo is very good, as long as you test small scale get yourself a winner and then go all out. :-)

[tylerjaysen]

Originally Posted by MarkJ321

I've never knowingly done anything fraudulent within my Facebook ads account and I've been using it for about 3 months without issues. Yet, out of the blue I received this email today:

Our security systems have detected suspected fraudulent activity on your account and have shut down the payments functionality as a result. For this reason, you will no longer be able to make purchases on Facebook. This decision is final. For security reasons, we cannot provide you with the specific actions that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (xxxx://xxx.facebook.com/terms.php) and Payment Terms (xxxx://xxx.facebook.com/terms.php#!/payments_terms/) if you have further questions.

I can no longer use Facebook Ads and the wording they've used in the email suggests to me that no matter what I say/do I'm not getting it back...
I quote "This decision is final".

And it appears I'm not allowed to question them about why it happened...
I quote "For security reasons, we cannot provide you with the specific actions that have been deemed abusive"

Has anyone else experienced something similar? And what can I do about it?

Thanks

Ugh dude I was just forwarded your thread today....as I just put up a thread on this very topic.

Yeah this is so frustrating and as a marketer it would be nice to know exactly what happened to make them send out this message. I got the exact same email sent to me as well when setting up an ad to a FB fan page that was evergreen for sure.

I emailed them to try and get an answer and they just replied with the same generic message. So I still have no clue why they banned my account.