Facebook users are turning to a novel and expensive account recovery method to retrieve hacked or stolen accounts. Instead of waiting for the Facebook security team to whirr into action and restore the hacked account, crafty Facebook users have found a loophole: buy a brand new Oculus Quest 2 VR headset from the company.
Despite a new Oculus Quest 2 costing $300, Facebook users found that the security team was far more likely to pay attention to their issues once they were a paying customer, even at the steep price.
Does Buying an Oculus Rift Restore Your Facebook Account?
According to an NPR report, it can take weeks for a hacked Facebook account to return to the rightful owner, such is the volume facing the Facebook security and accounts teams.
One canny user spotted an opportunity to dodge the line and followed a tip found on Reddit. The tip suggested purchasing a new Oculus Quest 2. As Facebook owns Oculus and you need a working Facebook account to use the VR headset, surely Facebook would oblige and get your account back into your hands, right?
Surprisingly, it worked.
After contacting the Oculus support team, the account was restored. But here’s the twist: the user then returned the unopened and unused Oculus Quest 2 to Facebook, safe in the knowledge that their account was secure.
Is Facebook Support Really That Bad?
According to the people purchasing a $300 VR headset, yes, Facebook support is awful, and that’s without getting into Facebook’s privacy issues.
As with most major tech companies (nay, most major companies in any sector), Facebook makes it almost impossible to contact. If you want to talk to a real person, you’re straight out of luck.
Part of this is to reduce overhead and shield workers from the overwhelming number of people that require help. Keeping account management and security out of sight makes it easier to manage.
But from the other side of the fence, it makes attempting to retrieve a stolen or breached account incredibly frustrating, with little information to go on and zero interaction to guide you through the process.
The NPR report did note, however, that this Facebook account recovery “hack” hadn’t worked for many people but is more of an indictment of the levels that frustrated users will go to in an attempt to claim their profile back.
After all, many profiles are deeply ingrained in their user’s lives, with memories, contacts, messages, photos, and much more.
All it really does is remind us that unless you’re paying, you’re the product, which is Facebook’s immensely successful business ethos.
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