Scam Alert: Is My Business Facebook Page Really in Violation?

By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant and President, JKM 

How to Tell if That Facebook Message About Your Business Page is Real or Not

You just received a direct message in Messenger claiming that your Facebook business page is in violation of terms of service or copyright complaints. But is it real?

No. If you receive a message via Facebook Messenger that your business page is in violation of anything - e.g., terms of service, copyright, or other complaint, it is a scam. 

Why? Because Facebook aka Meta does not notify page admins of business page violations via Messenger. And certainly not via a personal profile like "Andrea Rassmussen" or any other individual's name. (No offense to any real Andrea Rassmussens out there!)

So how can you tell is a violation notification is real or fake?

Easy. Page owners and admins will receive a Notification NOT a message. Rememeber, anyone can send a message via Facebook, but only Facebook and Meta itself can send a notification about your business page. 

Notifications appear under the bell icon on Facebook. Messages from anyone else on Facebook appear under the talk bubble icon aka the Messenger App icon. 

Message icon (talk bubble) vs. Notification icon (bell symbol.) Only Facebook can send notifications.

Another "tell" is that the scammer will include a link to a shady subdomain, non-Meta website or non-Facebook sub-page. And example would be https://pageviolations.noticeme.net or https://linktr.ee/pageviolation1234. Never click on these links! Here's an example of a fake violation message: 

Scam message sent via Facebook Messenger from another user.

What does a legitimate Facebook violation notification look like?

Here is a look at what a real, legitimate Facebook Copyright Notification looks like:   

Screenshot of a legitimate Facebook page notification.

Notice here that the page's profile image will appear in the notification. This is so that users who manage multiple Facebook Business Pages can identify which page is experiencing the issue. For agencies like JKM that manage over 30 Facebook pages for small businesses, this is extremely helpful and allows our social media managers to easily identify which client's Facebook page needs attention. 

What should you do if you receive a scam violation message?

The bottom line is that bad actors are creating pages that spoof and mimic Facebook, but they can only use Messenger and the links will always take you off the platform - something Meta would never do! So what is the best way to handle these?
🛑DO NOT RESPOND.
🛑DO NOT click the link.
🟢But you can report the page to Meta. Here's the link to Meta's Help page on how to do that: https://www.facebook.com/help/355811251195044
Notice the URL? Yeah, facebook.com.

By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President

Julee Klein is the President of Julee Klein Marketing LLC, a full-service digital marketing agency based in Morgan Hill, California. JKM is focused on serving small business owners in the greater Silicon Valley area. You can get in touch with Julee on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram @JKMktg