meta-badge-center.com is an impersonation phishing domain whose name poses as a Meta badge or verification center. It targets owners of Facebook and Instagram accounts and pages, especially those hoping for a verified badge. PhishDestroy first flagged it on 2026-09-14, and it went offline the next day, 2026-09-15. As of 2026-10-19 the site remains dead, with its content blocked by the hosting provider.
How the scam works
Badge-center scams usually reach victims through messages or ads claiming their account qualifies for verification, or that their page faces a violation that a badge appeal can resolve. The victim is sent to a branded form asking for their login email, password and often a two-factor code. With those details the operators take over the account, change its recovery settings, and use it for fraud or resale. When last checked, the page displayed only the title "Deployment Unavailable," a hosting error message rather than a Meta lure, while our classification is impersonation phishing.
Evidence
On 2026-09-16, 18 of 89 VirusTotal engines flagged the domain. They include BitDefender, Fortinet, Forcepoint ThreatSeeker, Criminal IP, alphaMountain.ai, CRDF, CyRadar and the Vietnamese anti-scam group Chong Lua Dao. Spamhaus lists it in its Domain Block List under the phishing category (DBL_PHISH), so mail and DNS filters that use Spamhaus will block it. The domain also appears in 5 AlienVault OTX threat pulses and on the PhishDestroy blocklist.
Infrastructure
The domain was registered through Name.com, Inc. on 2026-06-21, about 85 days before PhishDestroy detected it. That gap suggests the domain was registered well before the campaign launched rather than spun up the same day. It resolved to 216.198.79.1 on Amazon.com, Inc. infrastructure in the United States. Its Let's Encrypt certificate gave the page a padlock in the browser, which says nothing about whether the site is legitimate.
What to do
If you entered your Facebook or Instagram password on this site, change it right away from the official app and sign out of all other sessions. Then reset two-factor authentication, removing any phone numbers, emails or authenticator apps you do not recognize. Check whether the same password is used elsewhere and change it there too. If you have already lost access, use Meta's official account recovery process, and warn your followers about messages sent from your profile. Defenders should block the domain at DNS and email gateways and search mail logs for messages linking to it.
Saved certificate metadata. Certificate dates without a timezone are shown as stored. Transport encryption does not establish that the site is trustworthy.
Template-based draft · optional AI wording assistance requires separate consent
AI辅助草稿——事件详细信息由AI提供商处理 · 自行审核并提交
After a phishing incident
针对受害者的建议与指导
Choose the steps that match what you shared. Keep a copy of this report alongside your own records.
我应该立即采取什么措施？
紧急
Stop using the suspicious site. Open the real service through its official app or an address you already trust.
更改所有密码 — 电子邮件、Exchange 账户，以及任何使用同一密码的账户
启用双因素认证 使用身份验证器应用（而非短信）。禁用基于短信的恢复功能
冻结卡片 如果您在钓鱼网站上输入了银行信息
我应该为报告收集哪些信息？
联邦调查局（FBI）指南
Keep original emails, receipts, messages and screenshots in a secure place. A factual timeline helps the receiving authority understand what happened. IC3 evidence guidance ↗
Payment records — if you paid, save the receipt, amount, date, payment provider and recipient details.
Your bank or payment provider — contact its fraud team promptly through official contact details if money or card information was exposed.
当地警方 — 即使无法立即采取行动，也能留下正式记录
A report is not a guarantee of recovery or investigation, but prompt, accurate transaction data can help authorities and service providers trace the incident.
How do phishing scams typically work?
虚假网站 — 与正规网站完全一致的克隆网站，仅域名略有改动
猪的屠宰 — 通过Telegram/WhatsApp/交友软件花数周时间建立信任，随后钱被骗走
退款诈骗 — fraudsters pose as recovery agents and demand upfront fees. Never share a seed phrase or pay before independently verifying the provider
About this reportSources, observation dates and corrections
This report combines saved page captures, registration and network records, scanner results and PhishDestroy reporting history. Each source keeps its own observation date. Open a source report to inspect the original result.
The AI-assisted analysis was written on . It describes the evidence available at that time; later source checks can change.
A capture documents what was shown. A scanner result records that provider’s assessment at the time of its check. Neither a valid certificate nor a zero-detection result is a guarantee of safety.
(US)
