Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
If you're account is closed for terms of service violation, it's natural to want to know why. I'll explain why they probably can't tell you.
I had a free email account for THIRTEEN YEARS. Last month I was suddenly unable to login. One option offered was "Forgot password?". I took that route and after a couple of screens I got a message saying that I needed to contact customer support. I did. Two days later, I was told that my account had been canceled for violating TOS (Terms of Service)? No explanations whatsoever. I answered asking what violation I had committed. 3 days later I got a message saying they could not tell me any more and that was that. Fortunately, I had absolutely nothing valuable with them.
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I have enough articles on the dangers of using free email accounts that I'm not going to belabor that point here.
This comment caught my eye because it highlights a very frustrating problem that many people face when situations like this happen: you've apparently done something wrong, but they won't tell you why.
Believe it or not, there's actually a reason they won't tell you.
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Obviously, the first thing you might do if your account is closed for "Terms of Service" (TOS) violation is to go review the TOS.
Unfortunately, the TOS is typically written in fairly general language that can often be interpreted several different ways. But it's possible that you might discover the line you've crossed therein.
The problem is that if you don't, they probably won't tell you what you did.
Here's why:
You could be a spammer trying to "reverse engineer" the specific rules, so as to to avoid tripping them in the future.
Let's say (and I'm making this up) there's a rule that you can't use the word "pickles" in more than 25 consecutive emails. If you do, the assumption would be that you're spamming on behalf of the pickle industry, and thus violating the TOS. (Because I know people sometimes don't read for comprehension I have to stress: I am making this up. There's probably no rule against "pickles", and rules probably do not count the number of successive emails using a specific term. This is just a made up example.)
You invite 50 of your friends to a party and send 50 separate emails all of which say "by the way, would someone bring pickles".
Account closed due to TOS violation.
You're innocent.
Not knowing about the anti-pickles rule you email your service provider and ask. They say, "sorry, you broke a rule, and we can't tell you more".
Why?
Well, let's say you were a pickle-spammer. If the email provider would tell you "no more than 25 consecutive emails mentioning pickles" - you now know how send your spam by working around that rule.
By divulging the details of the rules, an email service provider would be helping spammers spam.
As a pickle spammer you would now know to send 20 mails at a time, separated by something pickle-free that would reset the count of pickle-related emails so as not to exceed the limit of 25 in a row.
And the email service provider helped you to do that by answering your question.
Now, you're not a spammer. But the email service provider has no way to know that.
Thus, they can't answer the question. From anyone.
Now, my made up pickle example is, of course, oversimplified. There are thousands of rules, and they're typically more complex than "send more x about y in a row" kind of rules. But the concept still applies: if the email service provider were to answer the question, then spammers could - over time - build a complete picture of what the rules are, and thereby skirt them.
The result would be more spam.
Frustrating as it is, that's the reason.
Don't bother asking why.
Definitely follow your options, if you have any, to regain access to your account, but it's pointless to ask what TOS you violated, as you'll likely not get an answer.
Article C4315 - May 15, 2010
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Actually, does anyone know if there is an easy way to tell if your computer has been zombied? (made an unwitting part of a spamnet).
A while ago I received some spam apparently from myself. I did all my usual scans, and some online ones just to make sure. Even looked at my upload figures on my ISP's website to see if they had changed much over the previous months (they hadn't), and came up with nothing. So in the end I just figured that someone who had my email address was either a spammer or had been zombied.
I think I remember Leo answering a question along the lines of receiving spam from your self some time back, and ran through all of his and other's suggestions then as well.
On a side note, email account wise, I'm in the rather unique situation of having and email address with an ISP that I no longer have a paid account with. Because when we parted ways they allowed me to keep my email address, and that was about eight or nine years ago. So I was quite interested in this article because technically, it's a free email account. But with an ISP that doesn't do free accounts. It sort of leaves me wondering just where I stand in all this. :\
Cheers Leo. Great articles as usual.
Posted by: Adrian at May 18, 2010 9:03 PMI had a hearty laugh using your pickle example. "Since I know that some people don't read for comprehension, I have to stress that I am making this up." If you are not reading for comprehension, you're not reading--you're daydreaming.
Posted by: Lee Nelson Guptill at June 1, 2010 7:32 AMI had my main yahoo account deactivated recently. I posted some apparently unwanted political opinions about South Africa. I think.
Or, I did some posts with my avatar as a famous comedian (copyrighted?)--and the posts were, although intelligent, obnoxious.
In any case, they deactivated my account without warning.
Now, I didn't know they had done it. I just knew I couldn't get into the account, so I freaked thinking I was hacked.
I quickly redirected all of my external information to another email account and later called Yahoo and talked to someone.
TOS violation.
The long and the short of it is, Yahoo basically lost a long-time customer in me. I had spent money through them buying different PPV stuff and what not. I also primarily used Yahoo for everything. I learned a hard lesson here.
My email (used for many, many years# is linked #as all of ours are# to our profiles to comment on news articles and all of that. I guess the only choice they have to to deactivate you entirely instead of just prevent you from posting on articles or something.
In any case, in the grand scheme of things, this is a very hard lesson. Now I will only use email I sponsor though another party #at my own expense#. I am not upset that the account is closed and all of the email lost, but this is a hard, hard lesson for all of us.
When people talk about cloud computing, and doing all of your computer and file-based work online, where it's saved online, and all of that, then just remember, if they boot you #for any reason, really, like posting unpopular opinions), you can basically lose everything, instantly.
12-Jun-2010
You're missing the point: "THIRTEEN YEARS" is the key. No one is going to have an account for 13 years and suddenly become a "pickle" spammer. A long time client deserves different treatment than one of the thousands of accounts recently opened for the sole purpose of spamming. Besides replying something like "Your account mailed hundreds of identical messages the day it was closed" does not give away any "rules" and at least tells one that the account was probably hijacked. The deduction stands: "Expect nothing from Yahoo."
Posted by: Carlos Coquet at June 29, 2010 5:06 PMI just had the same thing happen to me out of the blue - my hotmail account has been closed for a TOS violation out of the blue. I have not done anything different that I haven't done many times before - trading pics with friends etc....they won't tell you what you did; they won't give you an escalation path; that's it - you are done!! Some moron some place on the planet decided you no longer deserved a hotmail account and poof - all your contacts, etc...are gone.
Posted by: Paul at September 26, 2011 11:53 AM