I have/had two accounts at Infinity Free.
I used one for testing my website and developing scripts. Since I am human I make mistakes and for this account no harm is done if I antecedently lose some data. Some time ago this account was suspended “for abuse”. I don’t understand why, so I opened a support ticket to ask what was wrong. So far I did not receive an answer, making it impossible for me to make corrections or take preventive actions if required.
The other account is used to host the website and is linked to our domain www.kvs-son.nl.
I see this account has now also been suspended “for abuse”. I still have no idea in what way my website could be considered a form of abuse of the service. My website provides information about a volunteers organisation that organizes activities for children, which I would consider harmless and desirable. If children want to participate they can sign up for the activities through the website. If there are volunteers that want to help, they to can sign up through the website. The site is collecting personal information of individuals that sign up. We made it encrypt all privacy sensitive information in order to comply with legal obligations. We only send e-mail to people who have actively signed up and only if we have something to say that is important to them (like the confirmation of their subscription), so we can’t be guilty of sending spam either. We used wordpress ans the only plugins that were not developed by ourselfs came from came from the standard wordpress plugin repo, so I find it difficult to believe there would be a problem there.
I submitted a support request to ask to reactivate the account quickly and inform me about the reason for this suspension so I can make adjustments in order to prevent it from re-occurring. In the meantime I would like to ask for advise here.
What can I do to regain access to my database (I don’t want to disappoint children that signed up) as soon as possible?
What can I do to prevent this kind of suspension?
And does anybody know why I didn’t get notified about the reason of the suspension? If I did something that was seriously bad, I think informing me about it should have been the first step.
A little addition. It turns out that while I was typing this question I received an e-mail with an explanation. I don’t completely understand the explanation, but I think it turns out there was a administrative mistake. So now I am hoping for a quick reactivation.
Generally speaking, you should just submit a ticket from the client area for this. Those tickets are sent to the account review team, who will check why your account is suspended. They can tell you more about why your account was suspended, reactivate your account if it looks OK, or provide you with backups to download. They have quite extensive opening hours and usually respond within 15 minutes.
To answer your questions:
What can I do to regain access to my database (I don’t want to disappoint children that signed up) as soon as possible?
Simple: submit a ticket to have your account reviewed.
What can I do to prevent this kind of suspension?
There are a wide variety of reasons why your account might be suspended. Some are easier to prevent than others.
But as a general tip, try to avoid using proxies and VPN (especially free ones), because they tend to be used by criminals to hide their identity.
And does anybody know why I didn’t get notified about the reason of the suspension? If I did something that was seriously bad, I think informing me about it should have been the first step.
We keep the description vague on purpose. Most suspensions are done through automated detection, and sharing information about what was found at which time could cause information to leak about how these detection systems work. This information could then be used by criminals to try to circumvent these filters, and make it easier for their spam, phishing and other malicious activities to cause harm before we can take them down.
This is why we need to have a “shoot first, ask questions later” policy. If we don’t, we’ll be helping criminals.
I have no idea about the number of accounts you guys have to suspend, but if it becomes a lot I can understand the practical approach. While it was inconvenient for me this time I am very happy you only shot my website, so I could still answer the questions.