Locked Out of Facebook and trapped in an endless infinite loop!

How can I put this.

My Facebook account was locked by Facebook.

This account isn't my actual main real account but is another main account I've used for about 5 years to use for business purposes, posting to groups etc.

I was posting to some groups as I normally do and it said some unusual activity was detected and asked me to confirm my account.

Now on logging in now all I see is this.

Then the next screen it asks me to do a captcha.

Then it offers me 2 options to confirm my identity.


The trouble is, I've forgotten my security answer or it's not accepting the one I put.

And I have many many friends in my friends list on that account that I don't really know in real life.

Mostly they are people that have added me through some post on a Page I made or from some game I could have added myself years ago or from something else.

As you can see I've exceeded my hourly limit on trying that way to confirm my account.

That's because all it does is show several pictures of someone and a bunch of names and you're supposed to know who they are within like 5 seconds or something.

Do Facebook really think that tat people with 2000+ friends should know every single person by just their picture!?


You have to identify everyone it shows within about 5 seconds and guess them all right otherwise it tells you you failed and to try again.

You can only do that so many times per hour though and then it's not available so your account is completely locked with no other option at all to unlock it.

So I've investigated this and searched for forgot facebook security question and basically, Facebook don't help with this problem at all.

If you check here on what to do if you forget your security question all they say is:

If you're trying to get back into your account and you can't answer your security question, you may have the option to get help from friends.

If you don't have access to the email address that's listed on your Facebook account, we also recommend contacting your email service provider for help:

Gmail
Hotmail
Yahoo

Once you get back into your email account, you can request a new password for your Facebook account.

Click to expand...

Hold on a minute, WTF does resetting my password have to do with my security question!?????

Also, their only other option is to "get help from friends" but that requires that you have set 3 friends as your "trusted contact" that you can send some special link to they can give you or some shit.

Sorry for my French but this absolutely bloody ridiculous!

I haven't set anyone as my "trusted contact" so I CANNOT do that anyway.

I can reset my password, but all that does is let me reset it and once I re-login it just tells me I need to confirm my account again still..

I can either choose to answer my security question.

Or I can choose to try and guess pictures of friends.

But I only know some of my friends on that account in real life. The rest about 600 people I don't know.

So I'm stuck in this stupid infinite loop of going round and round in circles.

You might think I could contact Facebook about this but you have obviously never tried to contact Facebook before.

There is NO contact Page with contact options to reach anyone at Facebook.

Oh you can post in their community with their "Ask a Question" option but guess what, you need to be signed into Facebook to use it!

So you either have to use another Facebook account or get someone you know with one to "Ask a Question" to the community about someone else's account... Not too bate or anything!

Basically, this is probably my fault for forgetting my security question. But Facebook's help on forgetting your security question is irrelevant!

I don't understand in their answer to that as quoted above it says If you're trying to get back into your account and you can't answer your security question, you may have the option to get help from friends. But doesn't say if you don't have that option and then goes straight on to say If you don't have access to the email address that's listed on your Facebook account, we also recommend contacting your email service provider for help:

What does resetting your password have to do with not remembering your security question and not having the option to get help from friends?

Basically that account is now gone. Can kiss goodbye to it. Not a massive biggy but I was a member of some big groups and I do manage many Pages through it as well.

Has anyone else here ever experienced this same thing with getting locked out of Facebook?

Hope someone can shed some light on this, offer some insight or help somehow.

I'm really flabbergasted at this.

Hawker said:

How can I put this.

My Facebook account was locked by Facebook.

..................

Do Facebook really think that tat people with 2000+ friends should know every single person by just their picture!?

You have to identify everyone it shows within about 5 seconds and guess them all right otherwise it tells you you failed and to try again.

You can only do that so many times per hour though and then it's not available so your account is completely locked with no other option at all to unlock it.

So I've investigated this and searched for forgot facebook security question and basically, Facebook don't help with this problem at all.

..................

Hope someone can shed some light on this, offer some insight or help somehow.

I'm really flabbergasted at this.

Click to expand...

I faced the same problem and passed this verification from Facebook 2 years ago for one of FB accounts at third try.

You could not do more things when seeing this, even you remember your email address and try to reset your password to your email and get Facebook reset password link then after you changed password, it still requires this process.

I could pass it with an account 500+ friends but not sure if you are getting 2000+ friends on that account?

Just asking this because more and more friends mean it will decrease rate of success to pass this game ( verification ) :shake:

I cracked it! Fixed it. The accounts profile was still coming up and had another account with that one as a friend of it.

So I opened it, went to friends tab and scrolled down until it loaded all 420 friends.

Then I done the guess the photo thing again in a different browser and just basically searched for the names and tried to find them by photo.

I managed to do it and it said success you can now login again but then it made me do it again but I managed to do it again.

Now you'd think I would be able to change my security question/answer but that option is not available.

Madness what it is.

Still, its a resolution.

Hawker said:

I managed to do it and it said success you can now login again but then it made me do it again but I managed to do it again.

Click to expand...

Seem having some things wrong here, you could not pass it, if no it will redirect to your account without requiring login again.

Can you take a screenshot after you finished the verification?

Hawker said:

Now you'd think I would be able to change my security question/answer but that option is not available.

Click to expand...

If you passed the verification, you can change security question/answer without any problems...it should be that.

No, not any more because verification is completed so account is returned to normal.

No no, you cannot "change" your security question/answer.

The only time you can set that is when you first create your account (register).

There is no setting for me to do that anywhere.

Searched online and other people say same thing.

change my facebook security question

See here,

Can I update my security question?

We want to make sure that your account and the information in it stays safe, so once you set up a security question on your account there's no way to update it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Click to expand...

How ridiculous is that?

Talk about lame.

Oh well. Thanks!

Boy, you sure had some hoops to jump though huh? I agree, that is just out of hand. I can understand trying to make users accounts more secure, but it areal pain. I have yet to have a problem. Crossed fingers.

FB doesn't have the phone/text option like Google?

Glad you got it sorted out.

Thank Ron, me too. Facebook is a massive cash cow for me so starting a new account again from scratch wasn't too appealing.

They do, but not when you've been locked out. It's not offered as an option then.

I probably do quite a bit more work on Facebook than you do then. I post to many groups and Pages virtually every day.

But I mix it up with using different accounts, messages, links etc when I do.

Have been blocked from posting to groups many times. Especially when I first started using them.

When that happens though it's usually only for a few days.

Happens less and less with old accounts though which is why I was keen to get this one restored.

Facebook is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it's brought people together, long lost friends, school friends, war friends, families, cousins, brothers, sisters and all. And its brought new people together, sparked love, marriages, births and birthdays. There are people alive and walking around today purely because of Facebook. If it wasn't for it, they probably wouldn't be alive and their mom and dad wouldn't be their mom and dad just 2 random people that had never met. In fact, I'd go as far to say that there are new Families purely because of Facebook. Even a whole generation, thousands of people that would never have been born if it wasn't for Facebook. Plus it helps people keep in touch, see what's going on in peoples lives, and all the other fun side of it like photos, video sharing, games etc. And of course, people like us can use it for business purposes and earn from it in lots of different ways at one point along the line somehow.

So in that respect that's not a bad thing.

But then on the other hand, there's the bad side of it too. Facebook has destroyed some peoples relationships, marriages and lives. It's caused arguments and fights. It's made a lot of people jealous of others, it's made people very vulnerable, exposed and wide open. It's got peoples houses burgled. Nothing lets robbers know your definitely not in than your status that says "WE ARE GOING ON HOLIDAY FOR 2 WEEKS. SO EXCITED!". Also it's a playground for nonces, weirdos, peados etc that groom little kids and has actually resulted in that sickening thing happen as much as it sickens me to say it. In fact it was on the news just tonight about Facebook's "Secret Groups". It's truly sickening what's happening on Facebook as well but the majority of the public don't see it and want to believe it either.

So yeah, a blessing and a curse.

I agree, that's very bad stuff. Not to mention how the internet makes it so easy to bully. Way too easy. Like you mentioned, can't even mention what goes on behind the doors. Scary probably.

The big thing that bugs me is that while the internet, and sites like facebook, have made us more social online, it has also made us MUCH LESS social in person. There are a couple people in my family, close family members, that spend way to much time on their phones and tablet. So frustrating.

Don't get me started with drivers and even people walking, on their phones. argh.

The entire Internet has been a blessing and a curse.