How Can I Reach Facebook Customer Service

Imagine that one day you lot're kicked off Facebook. It happens, regularly. You may not know why exactly. Information technology looks like an algorithm may take done it — and now yous need to reach a human being beingness at the company to get back on. NPR has interviewed more 2 dozen users in that state of affairs — all people who rely on Facebook to do their work, make their living.

Their stories, which we'll share in a divide article, made us wonder: If you needed to reach Facebook, what would you do?

Many people would go online and search for "Facebook customer service."

Nosotros tried that, and got this number: 844-735-4595. It was prominently displayed as the peak search outcome on Google. Google even fabricated information technology a "featured snippet" — that is, a result highlighted in a box at the peak, enhanced to draw user attention and lend brownie.

Until recently, a phone number at the tiptop of Google search for "Facebook client service" led callers to a scam, NPR has plant. Google/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

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Google/Screenshot past NPR

Until recently, a phone number at the pinnacle of Google search for "Facebook client service" led callers to a scam, NPR has found.

Google/Screenshot by NPR

Please exercise not call it. You lot will get someone existent — just not from Facebook.

The first time NPR called, someone picked up and then put the phone down — maybe on a table. You could hear mumbling in the room. Information technology felt suspicious.

So NPR gave the number to Pindrop, a visitor that specializes in phone fraud. A Pindrop researcher, who has to remain anonymous for his piece of work, called upwardly and recorded as he pretended to be a Facebook user in distress.

A Pindrop Researcher Calls A Simulated Facebook Customer Service Number

A phone call center operator named "Steven" — who, according to Pindrop analysis, is based in India — says: "Thanks for calling Facebook." He is pretending to be a Facebook employee.

The Pindrop researcher plays forth and explains he is locked out of his Facebook account. He needs assist getting reactivated.

"Steven" gives him very unusual advice: Go to a Wal-Mart or a Target.

"Simply walk upward over there and tell them to provide you an iTunes carte. OK? And on the behind of that iTunes carte du jour there would be a 16-digit security code."

Maybe you run into where this is going.

Steven continues: "You demand to call us back on this same number and provide me that 16-digit security code so that I tin actuate that access and we'll be giving you the password for your new — for your quondam account."

This is a scam. The height Google search consequence for "Facebook client service" led to a person asking for codes on iTunes souvenir cards. This is a well-known method of stealing from innocent people online. (Both Apple and the Federal Trade Commission take issued alerts about it.)

That toll-complimentary "Facebook" line was non just on Google. That number and others accept been circulating on Facebook itself, on pages where users are asking for help, for at least a year. In 1 instance, a user asked whether the number was valid and a member of the company'due south Help Team responded: "There isn't a number to contact Facebook. ... It sounds like the email or notification you lot saw is likely a scam." Information technology'southward unclear whether the Help Team member reported it to her superiors to investigate.

"Wow. Wow. Wow. That's crazy," says Marty Weintraub, founder of Aimclear Marketing. He wrote a leading industry book on Facebook advert, long before the rest of the globe realized the company would boss the Internet economy. "This is an amazing issue."

He as well wrote a book on how to dispense search results, to go your brand or production up on top. He knows that companies monitor their search results, to meet what their customers desire, and that criminals and competitors try to exploit powerful brands. These are standard practices.

What Weintraub finds astonishing is that a term as basic as "Facebook customer service" slipped through the cracks.

"It's non like somebody's searching for 'Hey, what color are Mark Zuckerberg's socks?' Information technology'south non like it's something that's off the beaten path," Weintraub says. "So i would recollect that a company as large as Facebook would exist monitoring [the] search engine results folio for a major query surrounding their services."

According to Google data, "Facebook client service" gets searched, on average, virtually 27,000 times a month in the U.S.

Weintraub says that is sizable, that Facebook should have known about it "about the start minute" it came up, and that the company should have guarded its users. "I'd be so scared," he says. "These are people who are looking for help with the product and they're getting scammed. OMG."

NPR informed Facebook and Google about the scam line.

Facebook said that it has been investigating the group associated with this cost-free number for some time; that this group is targeting many platforms; and that it's up to Google to explain why it displays certain search results.

A Google spokesperson said in a statement that the company has taken steps to remove the fraudulent number.

Neither company explained how the prominent search effect went unnoticed.

And to be clear, Facebook does not have a phone number for regular users to call. It does take an online help center, located here. (Facebook pays NPR and other leading news organizations to produce live video streams.)

NPR's Aarti Shahani has started a folio on Facebook for people to share concerns most the platform. Information technology's chosen Tell Zuck. If you use Facebook for piece of work, and find you're unable to reach the company, tell her your story at world wide web.facebook.com/tellzuck .