Ask HN: Meta blocks our legit business while scammers use our name freely
Scammers are creating Facebook and Instagram pages pretending to be our company ([name-redacted]). They “hire” translators through DMs, get real work done for free, then demand a fee before the translator can “get paid.” We never hire through social platforms, but victims assume these pages are legitimate.
We report every fake page through Meta’s copyright and trademark forms. It usually takes about a week for each one to be removed, and by then new pages have already appeared. It’s endless whack-a-mole. We're now seeing negative reviews and Reddit threads accusing us of running the scam, and the reputational damage is starting to stack up.
We don't use these platforms personally or for business, but I tried creating an account and official page so we could at least put up a notice stating we don't hire through DMs. As soon as I created the account it was banned for “violating community guidelines.” I had only entered my name, DOB, email, password, and verified my email. I went through their video verification appeal and it was instantly denied as a permanent ban.
The same thing happened on Reddit. The account was banned right away and the appeal has been ignored for over a week.
How is it possible that scammers can create endless fake pages while a legitimate 10-year-old business with 23K positive reviews can't even create an account, much less post a warning?
We've reached out to our trademark and copyright attorney to see if they can help, but I wanted to ask HN, has anyone dealt with this? How do we get Meta to take real action against these impersonation scams, and how do we get a legitimate business account or page set up when the platform bans us on registration?