FordPass account suspended

[RickMachE]

So why haven't they fixed this guy's Ford Pass problem? I suspect we agree, this should not be a customer problem (possibly that VPN or some such conflict, and needs to be removed). It should not be a dealership problem - they neither wrote nor have the authority to change Ford software. It is a Ford problem. And Ford's goal should be that the software is largely invisible to be driver.

And actually, for most of us that has been true. I liked my 2019 RAV4 and all of its kludgy ADAS. The MME is so much easier to use, and has more features. My only disagreement with what Snakebitten wrote is that I don't think dealerships will have to do much more than changeout bad parts. The software technician will have enough support from Ford to tell the mechanic what and how to do it. Ideally like that RAV4 - hasn't seen a technician or mechanic going on 6 years (a friend now has it).

Why? Because it's a SERVER issue, not a CAR issue. It's the IT folks at Ford. Not dealership, not software car experts.

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[ChehRob]

You knew how to fix it, and I am sure we all appreciate that. Ford needs people like this. IIRC, my point was that this was a Ford problem, not customer or dealership. Currently the IT people seem not to take some customer problems seriously - or maybe those Ford customer service people are not allowed to access the IT people.

 

[ThatGuyLando]

Anyone else have your account suspended for "violation of terms or suspicious activity" and have never used a third party app or entered your Ford credentials or VIN into a app or site other than Ford?

They suspended mine on Tuesday, tried to unblock it on Wednesday and are still seeing "unusual activity". They now think its the VPN that I have used 2x in the past 2-3 months to access my work email. I never have the fordpass app open in the background and close it after every use, so I have a hard time believing its this.

They have put in another request to have it unblocked in 24 hours but we will see as it was supposed to be unbloced today at 10am PST.

I leave for a 2 week trip in the car that I will DCFSing the entire time and require the use of FordPass.

Thoughts or suggestions?

That's what happens when you even think about using YOUR data how you want to. The fact that they can block it for using a VPN is insane,given that mfa has been around for ages.

I cannot stress enough how much I hate this era of not owning anything we pay for.

 

[bbulkow]

Anyone else have your account suspended for "violation of terms or suspicious activity" and have never used a third party app or entered your Ford credentials or VIN into a app or site other than Ford?

They suspended mine on Tuesday, tried to unblock it on Wednesday and are still seeing "unusual activity". They now think its the VPN that I have used 2x in the past 2-3 months to access my work email. I never have the fordpass app open in the background and close it after every use, so I have a hard time believing its this.

They have put in another request to have it unblocked in 24 hours but we will see as it was supposed to be unbloced today at 10am PST.

I leave for a 2 week trip in the car that I will DCFSing the entire time and require the use of FordPass.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Sorry this is happening. Just to provide some context, this is a field of software called fraud detection. Fraud detection is more of an art than a science, and requires being one step ahead of whatever new innovation the crooks come up with. The fraud detection industry attempts to balance "false positives" (cases where normal use is flagged as fraud) and "false negatives" (fraud slips through). In a well run program, there is a continual review of the business impacts of false positives and false negatives. The impact of false positives is lower if an issue is resolved quickly and there is a path to quick resolution.

Regrettably, Ford can't trust the things you say. They think you're engaging in Fraud. They're requesting / requiring that you prove to them something you can't prove - you're not up to no good. It's common for systems like this to *not* tell a customer what caused the flag, because that provides tips to the bad guys. It's also common not to just take your word for the fact that you're not a fraudster.

This business is most finely tuned in bank transactions and credit card use, but exists probably in places you might not think - like return addresses for Fedex envelopes. Online ad networks work hard to make sure they don't present fraudulent ads - and people who place online ads work hard to figure out that the ads they paid for, actually got placed. It's all a big industry.

The worst news is with AI, it's possible Ford doesn't even know why your account was flagged. They're probably saying "VPN" because it's what they've been told to say. Remember, they're trained to not tell you what the reason is, even if they know, which they might not.

Getting caught in modern fraud detection is absolutely annoying and hard to resolve. With a company like Ford who certainly uses outside vendors who may also be "opaque", it gets worse. A common technique is to hire multiple vendors and pit them against each other, and eventually create a "fraud score" for a user by taking different elements of different outside services.

It's pretty likely Ford isn't good at online fraud detection. Hopefully they get better.

 

[RandyMache]

I've been using a VPN most of the week, and not had any issues as of yet. We'll see.

Different sites/apps like or don't like some VPNs, and maybe Ford is one of them. I'd make sure you're not VPN'ing through another country or some really odd location [for you] in case they run some sort of conditional access checks against expected login patterns.

A password change as noted above is probably your best route once you can get into it.

It'd be great if Ford could share access attempts somehow (Microsoft, Google, and others provide that information.) I see attempted access all of the time, but they're all failed logins, which is expected in this day and age. If you reuse the same password on any service, check those as well for odd activity.

Ford may also just have your account flagged as a false positive for whatever they're looking for.?‍

Just my experience, but, I travel overseas frequently, I use VPNs all the time and check on my fordpass app. I have never had a problem or even a warning. For that that is worth........

 

[VindictivePantz]

Just my experience, but, I travel overseas frequently, I use VPNs all the time and check on my fordpass app. I have never had a problem or even a warning. For that that is worth........

I'm traveling a bit more of late, and don't trust any open WiFi connections so have been VPN'ing, and so far so good with regards to Fordpass and even account access on the web.

 

[JHAZ]

If you share your data with a third-party, such as Recurrent:

https://electrek.co/2021/11/20/recu...tery,Try out Recurrent for yourself for free

Ford will warn then disable the FordPass app.

 

[Yoyonowich]

It seems I cannot use ABRP with Ford Pass. I've been locked out several times, and now forced to delete ABRP. Anyone that successfully used ABRP with FordPass?

 

[kindofblue]

It seems I cannot use ABRP with Ford Pass. I've been locked out several times, and now forced to delete ABRP. Anyone that successfully used ABRP with FordPass?

I've not been having any issues with the 2 apps.

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