You may have been hearing lately about the importance of getting Meta Verified to avoid your Facebook or Instagram page being taken down. Then, you might have received a message something like "your page is scheduled to be deleted..."
Something like this.
Maybe you panicked. Maybe you thought 'this is it'.
Take a deep breath- it's spam. How can you tell? Here's our quick checklist of 5 ways you can determine whether a message like the one below is spam on Facebook:
1. They message you via Messenger. (Meta would have sent you a notification.)
2. They send you a long, wordy explanation for why you're being unpublished. (To spammers, more words = more believability.)
3. They come from a profile associated with an individual's name or a misspelling of Meta's company name. (Again, a profile would never message you, but especially not one named Verified Mêta Account 2025.)
4. They want you to click a link. (Most of us know by now not to click random links sent to us by strangers, but when the adrenaline kicks in, that might be your first reaction.)
5. They let you know in advance your page might be taken down. (Meta doesn't tell you- they just unpublish the page. Ask us how we know.)
Something else to note- just because you might be receiving a high volume of these messages does not make them legitimate.
Is there a way to prevent messages like these? Unfortunately, Meta doesn't currently have strong spam filters in place for most Facebook accounts, so the best thing to do is block and delete. Do not click, reply, forward, or even copy and paste the text into a separate message- you may end up getting flagged after all!
Stay safe out there!
