This is the message I sent to Facebook — took forever to try to find somewhere to post it and I have this strange doubt it will ever be answered.
I find it especially disturbing that the FB version of ESET is more than 50% larger than normal version. I am very suspicious of this. And I’m disappointed that ESET, which previously has been considered reputable, is involved with this unwarranted, unreasonable, and unappealable action by Facebook.
In fact, Facebook became the malware, with ESET an accomplice. It hijacked my system and absorbed a great many resources in time and effort. And now has left something on my system that I don’t want and don’t trust. Sure sounds like malware to me.
I’m also putting this on my blog just in case, you know, FB misplaces it. Accidental-like.
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A notification came up that said my computer might be infected with malware and needed to be cleaned. It locked me out of Facebook. I checked on SpyBot, CCleaner, Adware, and Malwarebytes. All said my system was clean. I then went directly to ESET and used their online scanner — the same one your notification said I HAD to use. Clean. Clean from 4 reputable firms. Clean from your annointed service. Yet still locked out of FB.
I went back to FB and went through your version of ESET. I note that this file is 50% larger than the one directly from ESET. Why?
Why do you flag accounts that are NOT infected, as assessed by multiple measures including your own selected service?
If your goal truly is to save us from malware why on earth is a clean report from so many, including your selected service not satisfactory?
What is it that FB gains when your users are forced to go through your process in order to get back into their account? And why are you triggering this malware notification when there is no malware (again, as shown by SpyBot, CCleaner, Adware, Malwarebytes, and what FB says is the same version of ESET that it is using)?
Did you ever find resolution? I’m stuck in Eset hell as we speak!
Facebook didn’t resolve that issue and continues to find new and horrifying ways to torment me, Andrea. I’m sorry to hear you’re being treated to the same!
Patricia, you have every right to be suspicious. I was locked out of my account, forced to download the Facebook anti-malware (in my case, from Kaspersky). Like you, I had a clean system. But things got worse from there: their program knocked out my real antivirus (see http://jackyan.com/blog/2016/01/when-facebook-forces-you-to-download-their-anti-malware-your-own-antivirus-gets-knocked-out/). It’s taken four days of repairs to get it back to where it was before Facebook injected its anti-malware malware into my system. I’ve also found cases where your computer and browser have nothing to do with it: others can sign on to their accounts on the same system without any issue, which means Facebook hasn’t really scanned you. However, their fake virus scan will have, and goodness knows what about you has been transmitted to Facebook and to the authorities.
If others are reading—since I spent some time getting around things—the first solution is to delete your Facebook cookies. This should get you back in, though in some cases you will get into a limited account. Those limits eventually get lifted after a few days.