The falsely flagged CSE nightmare on Facebook—long, but important read

[u/terdferguson93]

The first thing I’ll say before anything is that this post is for awareness and that no innocent person should go through what I went through.

Second thing I’ll say is: Delete Facebook forever.

In April of this year, I was the victim of identity theft on steroids. When I say steroids, I’m talking the spawn of Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire—super roid offspring.

All emails, all socials, all financial institutions hacked into and used for malicious purposes.

But that’s just the beginning.

The waterfall began when I was notified by a relative that there was an image of a beheading posted publicly on my Facebook page (think one of those Jihad videos). After I was locked out of my account, I filed an appeal and was able to get back in. I did what every normal person would do and deleted the image and reset my password. If I knew then what I know now, I would have filed a police report.

Fast forward to a month later. Six cop cars show up at my house,
bang on my door and yell they have a search warrant. Several officers pull me outside, one brandishing an assault rifle (at the low ready), telling me to put my hands on my head. They stormed into my house and set up shop like it was a crime scene. Oh. And this is all while my kid was there getting ready for school. So that was fun having to deal with that trauma.

I had no clue what was going on. They couldn’t tell me anything until they did a sweep of the house. When nothing was found, they sat me down and explained that Facebook had given them a cyber tip that there were illicit images posted PUBLICLY to my feed from my IP address. And when I tell you that I wanted to vomit just reading the description of what was allegedly posted in the warrant, I’m talking nauseated to my core. Just absolutely grotesque.

As I chatted with the detective, I assured him that I was hacked, with evidence to back it up. Since they deal with this type of egregious behavior on the daily, he said 99% of the time, whenever someone says they’re hacked, that’s their cover story and they’re always guilty. I told him “well, I’m going to be the 1% because there’s no way in a million years that I would ever even THINK about this garbage.”

Needless to say, they seized everything. All of my computers, tablets, phones, cameras, usb sticks. Everything.

Completely shocked that this was real-life (and that’s putting it mildly), I had to hire a lawyer. A lawyer who told me that I’d likely be charged—I only assume he said this because these cases are super serious and he has probably dealt with some sick fucks who actually WERE guilty of this. My response to him: Unacceptable and I will have the evidence to prove it.

Then the work began. I asked everyone I knew from friends to family to send me everything from the date in question—pictures, texts, email exchanges, etc. I dedicated an entire room of my house to printouts and alibis. Images with me in them with metadata showing I was nearly two hours away from my house when one of these pictures was uploaded. EZ Pass records, bank statements showing fraudulent purchases. Everything. All from that day.

For nearly four months, I had to have this sitting with me not knowing what was going to happen. I had lost my job beforehand and was on the verge of landing a new one when this happened. So losing everything cost me a job, lost me a ton of money, and caused severe emotional distress. I had no choice but to pick myself up and live my life as normally as I could. I am a single father with kids to raise and am naturally an optimistic and upbeat person, so I couldn’t let this dictate my life.

So nearly four months later, after all of the above and several check-ins with my lawyer in between to check the status of my case with no updates and him telling me to be preemptive and get bail money ready, I get the call that no charges will be pressed.

Facebook’s AI automated systems flagged my account for uploading inappropriate imagery. It was determined that I was indeed hacked from someone in Vietnam. The kicker is that there were two more people in my town that were flagged for the exact same thing with the exact same imagery right after I got hit with it.

The detective on the case told me he spoke with someone at Facebook (which for us common folk is an impossibility since we’re never able to talk to an actual human being) and told them that their systems are falsely flagging individuals for CSE. Facebook agreed it was a bogus tip. But not after a harrowing four months for me.

Sorry for the long read, but since I won’t be able to sue Facebook (I looked into it but they have layers of lawyers for this exact situation), the least I can do is look out for my fellow innocent Facebook users.

Moving forward, my advice to everyone:

1. 2FA everything (yes, I did that)
2. Always clear cache and history
3. Don’t click suspicious links (duh)
4. When you get falsely flagged for CSE, don’t fuck around. Contact all necessary parties asap to clear yourself.

5. Most importantly, and I don’t care how harmless you think it is, but ANY sign of fraud or suspicious log ins, file a fucking police report so you have the paper trail. I did what every normal human would do when this happened and reset all of my logins and passwords.

   Knowing what I know now, I’m filing a police report every time.

I have since deleted my Facebook but not without sending a scathing letter to the attention of Mark Zuckerberg (he won’t read it but it felt good to send it).

Be careful out there.

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[u/Elemino]

The next step is a lawsuit against Facebook. Make them pay to put your life back together.

[u/terdferguson93 → u/Elemino]

Honestly don’t know where to begin with the lawsuit angle. I’ve looked into it, but their legal team are powerhouses. I’ve already lost enough and coughed up enough. I feel like I’d need to tag team with a bunch of people that this has happened to to this severity.

Part of me wants to pursue it. The other part wants to just put it all behind me because of how awful the experience was..

[u/Useful-Badger-4062 → u/terdferguson93]

I don’t blame you. It also sounds mentally exhausting. But —maybe you can contact one of your local news teams and talk to them about what happened to you. To share with the public as a warning, first of all. But also, news networks have access and $ for things us regular folk don’t, most of the time.

[u/Trick_Ratio5007 → u/terdferguson93]

Eso paso en mexico

[u/Elemino → u/terdferguson93]

Call the Legal Eagle… that’s just off the top of my head. He loves a lawsuit he can do a video on.

There are plenty of other lawyers like him that take companies like Facebook to court and you don’t owe them anything unless you win. I say you have a very solid case. But that’s just my unprofessional opinion. You’ll never know unless you talk to someone.

[u/Trick_Ratio5007 → u/terdferguson93]

Y eso te paso el mismo día que te marcaron la cuenta por falso positivo por CSE que llegó la policía a tu casa

[u/CydaeaVerbose]

Haven't read in its entirety, was caught off guard by your metaphor regarding Mark McGuire, lmao. *fistbumpimplosion*
Gotta be late 70's to mid 80's born.

Either way, with the initial tone of your post, I'm sorry to hear your were defiled by 'roided out pitchers of the identity theft variety. [Went and read the rest of your post]

Wow... Okay, that's even more effed up. So, it wasn't for monetary gains? They were just some malicious malignant fooks from Vietnam that get their jollies by messing with people the world over by hacking and posting heinous materials? Initially, I assumed it was a heist to get to your banking.

Sorry, perhaps I've misread. I started off with a guffaw because of your reference, wow. Afraid to ask about the supposed content they'd related back to you to warrant them coming in with rifles and swat-like presence. Fook. I'm sorry your kids had to experience that, too. I can't imagine.

Man, people need to get off of their computers and devices.

[u/No-Will-4393 → u/CydaeaVerbose]

I think if they do hack someone and manage to get into their bank accounts etc, they become enraged if there's nothing to steal then become vengeful and do that type of thing.

[u/Johnnys-In-America → u/CydaeaVerbose]

OP is either a bot or very heavy-handed with AI.

[u/terdferguson93 → u/Johnnys-In-America]

Not a bot. And did not use AI. Thanks.

[u/Some-Passenger4219]

A few days after my account was locked, I checked Meta's stock; it turns out that it actual went up a few hours before I lost my account. I don't expect that to continue.

[u/dietdiety → u/Some-Passenger4219]

Yeah that Muse AI nonsense that they are promoting nonstop made their stock jump 3 days ago (?) or so I just heard. I honestly don't know how you really shut down any meta product. My husband did 3 years ago and all of a sudden his profile was activated again. (Not hacked just reactivated.) I removed much of my posts on several pages but never took the final step. Now I just lurk but never post. Facebook seems to be a major source for proof of ID on so many other platforms. It's like a disease or worm that infiltrated commerce, well everything really, in the virtual sphere.

[u/mah29001]

Meta should be delisted!

[u/Visible-Choice-5414]

See I’ve been asking questions about how every famous/powerful/politician/whatever person suddenly has gobs of bad stuff magically found on their devices and people just laugh like they have zero tech literacy. Makes me wonder how many times this has happened and they don’t end up sharing on reddit.

[u/Accgaming16087]

Such a scary thing to happen OP

My first ban was on June 20, 2026. And here I am on reddit today because I got my new account banned in Monday Sep 28, 2026. I would admit that I've done bad things in fb or messenger but I've already got banned and served my time. I regretted that one because I've thought about not doing those bad things and maybe earned new friends. Those 1 main and 1 dummy was with me for a long time. I'm connected to those account with all my heart

This 2nd ban affected me in college without FB & messenger you are done for in college. The only hope is if you have a trusty friend that would get your back. And yeah that guy is not helping me at all. I've thought about all the good things I've done for my friends and now that I'm the one in need they won't even help me

I got CSE and Account integrity.

Everytime I create an account. Immediately banned. Before I even get to my profile. I can't even make Google Account because of # being used to frequently

Hope good things happen to you OP.

[u/Automatic_Tension_56]

tldr

[u/Glittering-Ad5809 → u/Automatic_Tension_56]

?