White hat: I’ve only had luck taking over abandoned social account if it’s an exact match name for a trademark I’m representing. Additionally, the account has to have been abandoned for at least 12 months and/or posted content that could make consumers believe it is an official account of the trademark holder.

*Edit:* I have only gotten that to work, when communicating with an email address that is from an exact match .com domain name. So if the username was *@RandomWidgets*, I’m only going to get a response from customer service reps if I’m emailing from something like *[email protected]*

Grey/Black hat: You’ve got a few guesses at their password, before the account gets locked up. Try the username, try the username followed by “1!”, try the username backwards. Do not do this *before* reaching out to FB.