Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/04/21/facebook_scam_warning_page_suspension/

Facebook restores fan page of social scam warning site

Strong language to blame for mystery suspension?

By John Leyden

Posted in Security, 21st April 2011 22:05 GMT

Facebook has restored the fan page of an anti-scam site after earlier turfing out the Bulldog Estate.

The expulsion, decried by security watchers, meant that a site which serves the useful purpose of warning about survey scams and malware on Facebook disappeared off the social network.

Scam Snipper, another similar service, also lost its fan page on Monday. Happily, both sites were allowed to rejoin the Facebook fold by Thursday.

Each operation also runs a website, neither of which was affected by Facebook's curious move. "The Bulldog Estate has a reputation for plain speaking so perhaps that's what caused Facebook to suspend it's fans page," a Sophos spokesman offered.

However, Facebook said the Bulldog Estate page was removed by mistake. "The page in question does not violate our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and was removed in error," the social network said. "We apologise for the inconvenience."

Tony Mazan, the owner of The Bulldog Estate, only received a stock response to its repeated inquiries about the mystery deletion of its fan page prior to the reinstatement of the page on Thursday.

The Bulldog Estate - motto: We keep crapping on the scammers' lawns - thanked Sophos for its help in publicising the deletion of its fan page.

More on the whole episode can by found on The Bulldog Estate's website here. ®