Why has my Swagbucks account been deactivated?

It seems that we're hearing more and more examples of people's accounts being deactivated on Swagbucks and despite the cries of 'I've done nothing wrong!' it's easy to fall foul of Swagbucks without even thinking about it, especially as we fall into bad habits the more familiar we get with the Swagbucks process.

So what could you have possibly done wrong?

This is what Swagbucks say in their help centre:

I tried to access my account and I received a message that it has been deactivated. Why?

There are number of actions that Swagbucks considers cause for deactivation. These reasons include, but are not limited to, operating more than one Swagbucks account; searching or clicking unnaturally in violation of our terms of use; using bots or other software designed to defraud Swagbucks in any way; posting verbiage, photos, or videos that encourage or teach other users to commit any action that violates our terms of use; posting inappropriately on our Facebook, Twitter, or any of our other social media sites; or posting inappropriately on our blog.

So let's take them one at a time:

• Operating more than one Swagbucks account - check whether you have an account in your name but an old email address, do you have a fake account created to give a false referral for the Swago board, is there any way that two or more accounts can be attributed to you?
•  Using bots or other software designed to defraud Swagbucks in any way - this should be self explanatory and if you;re doing it you should know :)
• Posting verbiage, photos, or videos that encourage or teach other users to commit any action that violates our terms of use - put simply, have you advised someone to do something that is against the Swagbucks T&Cs? Have you encouraged someone to fake a referral account to fill a Swago board? Told them how to circumvent video ads? Explained how to work around the terms of a Discovery deal? All reasons to have your account deactivated.
• Posting inappropriately on our Facebook, Twitter, or any of our other social media sites or our blog - it's easy to get carried away when you haven't been credited for that 1500sb offer, but abusing the staff on the Facebook page isn't the way to fix it :)

There are, of course, other reasons to be deactivated - running more than one video app at the same time, running two lots of Watch videos at the same time, accessing via a VPN, continuously faking info on surveys to count just a few. The chances are that if your account is deactivated then there is a valid reason for it, at least in Swagbucks' eyes, and so rather than jumping up and down, the best thing to do is to work WITH Swagbucks to get your account reinstated.

In the first instance, email compliance@swagbucks.com to try and find out why your account was banned, and to see if there is anything you can do to fix it. Be polite, courteous and humble, accept whatever it is that you have done wrong (even if you don't agree with it) and with a little grovelling, your account should be back again in no time :)

Still struggling? Pop into our Facebook group and create a post - there's usually someone around who has been through the same thing and can help.