The "your online service is overloaded and will cancel your account if you don't forward this message" is an old form of leg pull began its online life way back December 1999 as a jape that targeted users of the free Hotmail e-mail service, and over the years it has mutated to settle on Facebook users:
Hi this is a message from the creator of facebook and it tells
you a little bit about what is going to happen to facebook on the 15th of
Dec . Please don't send this back to the person you received it from. Dear
facebook members, Facebook is suppose to be closing down it is recently
becoming very overpopulated. there have been many members complaining that
facebook is becoming very slow. Records show that there are many active
facebook members and on the other side, many new members.We will be
sending this message around to see if members are active or not. If you
are active please send to 15 other users using copy+paste to show that you
are still active. *Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks will
be deleted without hesitation to make more space. Send this message to all
of your friends to show that you are still active and you will not be
deleted without hesitation to make more space. Today This coming 11pm,all
facebook account will be CUT. This is according from the creator of
facebook. All the activities that was being done this time will be delay,
SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. To save you're facebook accounts, please
forward this message to 25 FB users for us to make sure that you are
active user of FB. If can't pass this to 25 users you're account will1 be
cut without any hesitancy.
A December 2006 Facebook version read as follows:
Attention all Facebook members.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated, There have been many members complaining that Facebook is becoming very slow. Record shows that the reason is that there are too many non-active Facebook members And on the other side too many new Facebook members. We will be sending this messages around to see if the Members are active or not,If you're active please send to other users using Copy+Paste to show that you are active Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks, The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space, If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send this message to show me that your active and not deleted.
Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg
In June 2010, new versions of the Facebook hoax surfaced:
There are many complaints that Facebook has become unacceptably slow. The report shows that Facebook has a number of nonactive members. We want to send this message to see if you are active or not. If you don't post this message within 2 weeks you will be removed in order to get more space.
Since Facebook has recently become very popular, has become the many complaints that Facebook has become unacceptably slow. The report shows that the reason is that Facebook has a number of non-active members and, secondly, many new Facebook members. We want to send this message to see whether you're active members or not. If you're active then, can you send this message to at least 15 users. Use the "Copy - Cut and Paste" to show that you are still active. Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks in, will be removed in order to get more space. Send this message to your friends to show me that you are still active, and do not want to be removed.
A similar version began to circulate in January 2015. While this version of the scam also requested Facebook users to forward the hoax message to a number of their social media connections, it also included a customer support number. According to OKCaller.com, the number listed in the message was an "unsafe number":
Hello,we are the Facebook company... You will have to send this message to 20 people to stay active. If you dont do this your acount will be disconected. If you think this is fake please call customer support on this number: 316-691-9111 Thank you for choosing Facebook as your social media app. Again thank you. Chat Conversation End