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First of all I am not a "computer person" and I'm not going to spend a year learning more about computer stuff so I don't have to ask questions here. I've searched for similar questions, and while they provided some advice, much of it was simply too vague for someone like me. I imagine that other people would also benefit from answers to this particular question.

So here's my problem. Working on my Windows 10 HP, I created a new facebook account and shortly after it got suspended. They said I was being untrustworthy or something. The funny thing is I had been suspended by Ebay shortly before. And I realized that it likely was a consequence of my VPN, not so much the fact that I was using a VPN at all, but rather that, since VPN IP’s are apparently often shared, someone else had been doing shady things with the same VPN IP and as such the IP was flagged. (I used Cactus VPN). Neither Ebay nor Facebook have any customer service worthy of the name so there was nothing I could do there.

So anyway, I figured I would create a new facebook account. So I signed out, closed my browser which was Chrome, ran CCleaner to get rid of cookies, changed my VPN address, and tried to get back on Facebook. And yet just right upon arriving on the very first page of facebook, where they normally ask you to sign in, it was still written my account was suspended. I wasn’t given the chance to sign in on another account. So how did they know it was me?

I figured that facebook must have recognized me through Chrome, so I again closed Chrome, ran CCleaner, and changed to yet another VPN address, and this time opened Firefox instead, and at first facebook didn't recognize me! But once I put in my other email address and clicked "create account", again facebook said my account was suspended.

Now, both my addresses were gmail addresses, so I figured facebook must have learned from google that those addresses belonged to the same person, and I figured I needed a more secure email address. So I went ahead and signed up for Protonmail, and also Proton VPN. I used the Pale Moon browser which is supposed to be good for privacy, and the Proton VPN, and went back on to facebook, and still it said that my account was suspended, though only after trying to create a new account, as was the case in the following attempts as well.

So at this point I figured it had to be something on my device, an HP with windows 10, so I went and got Spybot, and ran it, and it destroyed some malware. And still facebook recognized me!

So then I got Tor, and went through that, plus the usual new VPN address, and it still said I was suspended!

Then I went to the security settings of my computer and switched off all the various relevant things there. And yet still facebook recognized me.

So I created a new local user account on my computer, and went back to facebook, gave a brand new email as well (as I had done each time), but no VPN. And yet facebook still recognized me. And I really don't want to have to change local user for facebook not to recognize me anyway.

I also know I could create a facebook account from another device but I don’t want to have to do that either.

So that's where I'm at. Can anyone provide any further practical suggestions?

I knew facebook was pretty intrusive. But this is well beyond anything I expected. I'm quite appalled.

N T
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  • It's probably the VPN, and your obviously non-standard behavior. Maybe it doesn't like your VPN provider (you changed the IP on every attempt, not changed provider right?), but I suspect Facebook doesn't like any VPNs in general anyway (or Tor, etc.). Then there's your non-standard behavior: I bet you are not following their suggestions (like providing a phone number, a legit non-AI-generated pic, etc.). Long story short: FB is good at detecting users that don't want to use their services like they were meant to be used (that is, giving up your privacy). – reed Feb 08 '21 at 13:48
  • Hey thanks for the comments. At this point it practically feels that Zuck has indeed implanted something in our houses lol. I did actually change VPN providers once (Cactus to Proton). But if Facebook just didn't like the VPN or Tor, then it should give me a different message than "your account has been suspended", which indicates that it knows exactly who I am every time. And yeah, I didn't want to give a pic or a phone number precisely because I don't want to be associated with my normal account since I intend to post some controversial content and don't want pitchforks coming to my house. – N T Feb 08 '21 at 14:16
  • A possible explanation is that they fingerprinted your computer previously. – elsadek Feb 08 '21 at 17:07
  • *"... So then I got Tor, and went through that, plus the usual new VPN address ..."* Going to a VPN from Tor effectively negated your use of Tor. – user10216038 Feb 08 '21 at 22:39
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    Does this answer your question? [Anonymous web browser. Is it real?](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/857/anonymous-web-browser-is-it-real) – mentallurg Feb 09 '21 at 02:17
  • 1. Well I would say it looks like fingerprinting is indeed how they are tracking me. Searching fingerprinting led me to Avast secure browser; I tried with that, but again no luck. Apparently Avast is nowhere near as great as it claims to be. 2. Thanks for pointing out my blunder with VPN and Tor; I think I tried both with and without anyway since I wasn't sure about that. 3. The anonymous web browser question doesn't really help me unfortunately; it doesn't really give indication of how I might be able to prevent tracking. – N T Feb 09 '21 at 06:46
  • You still have one thing you didn't try : brand new OS installation, and without restoring a thing. – elsadek Feb 09 '21 at 08:32
  • Well I'll maybe try the new OS but it's a hassle too. – N T Feb 12 '21 at 00:25

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You could use an android phone and set it up w a new gmail and then use that for fb over a free wifi at a retail location. You can't just reset the android phones any more without prior password, however. I soft bricked a cell phone that way sadly because I didn't remember my old pword.

JayConsole
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  • Yeah, well that's what I figured and it's the last thing I put in bold in my post. I know I can do that, but it bugs me that I can't just be completely anonymous from my computer. – N T Feb 09 '21 at 06:09