Opencart Account Suspension: Causes and Fixes

Is your OpenCart account suspended? There can be many reasons due to which your host may suspend your OpenCart store. The most common of which include – policy violation, payment failure, malware attack, or spam on your site.

Having your web store taken down can obviously mean loss of business for you. While it can cause inconvenience to your customers. Or being seen as a nuisance at the very least.

Restoring your suspended OpenCart store may take a considerable effort from your side. Which we will be discussing later in this article. We will also discuss various OpenCart account suspended messages and their causes in detail. Also, there are tips to guide you in restoring the suspended account.

OpenCart Account Suspension Messages

This is how messages of Opencart account suspended from various hosts look like:

• Bluehost: Your web hosting account for yourdomain.com has been deactivated as of date. (reason: terms of service violation – malware/virus)
• GoDaddy: This account has been suspended.
• Site Ground: Hosting account and website suspended for malware.

• HostGator: Your example.com HostGator account is suspended because of malware.
• Dreamhost: Account Suspended on <Date>.

4 Most Common Causes Of OpenCart Account Suspension

1. Opencart Account Suspended for Malware, Virus

Hacking groups target OpenCart frequently as it is widely used. By uncovering one zero-day exploit, they can infect multiple OpenCart sites for various nefarious purposes. Thereafter, these hackers exploit your website for SEO spam, cryptocurrency mining, spamming, etc. This can have a huge negative impact on the SEO and reputation of your OpenCart store. In order to reinfect after malware cleanup, the hackers often leave backdoors making it difficult to clean the site.

The malware also tries to spread to other websites on the same server. Or at times, the malware may consume too many resources on the server, making all the sites slow. As a result, the host may suspend your account and the ‘OpenCart account suspended’ message may appear.

2. Opencart Account Suspended for Lack of Payment

Hosting plans for each host vary from one another. The billing cycle may, therefore, depend on your host (annual, quarterly, weekly, monthly). The host may warn you regarding your upcoming payments using Email, SMS, or other means. At times, your email server may be bouncing these emails, or they end up in the spam folder.

In case of automatic billing, sometimes your credit card may have expired or blocked by your bank. As a result, you may default on the payments and that could be the reason why your OpenCart account got suspended.

3. OpenCart Account Suspended for Affecting Server Performance

For each hosting plan you buy, a limited number of server resources are allocated. In case you exceed your quota, it may affect the server performance and as a result, other sites may get affected too. Hosting providers use various mechanisms to detect such websites and suspend them. Various causes for the same can be:

• A new plugin, theme, script, etc consuming too much server power.
• A possible increase in the server load due to the outdated PHP version.
• A malware infection that is using your site to mine cryptocurrency.
• A malware sending bulk spam from your site that can consume your server’s resources.
• A possibility of phishing scripts present on your site.

4. OpenCart Account Suspended Due to Policy Violations

Every time you sign up for a new hosting service, you need to agree to certain terms and conditions of service. Read them carefully as they contain information regarding what and what not is allowed on their servers. Not complying with these may lead to OpenCart account suspension. Some common issues are given below:

Plagiarism

Plagiarism can have a negative effect on the SEO of your OpenCart store. Moreover, it can also affect the reputation of the hosting provider. Hence, some hosting providers have a lenient policy on plagiarism while following a strict policy. Also, it is unethical to steal the content of others. This results in many hosting providers getting their accounts suspended due to plagiarism.

Illegal Content

Each hosting provider has its own terms of service. These TOS decide what content can and cannot be uploaded on their servers. For example, while you may not consider some content to be violent, the hosting providers may differ. Hence, it is important to read TOS before setting up a website with content. Otherwise, it could lead to OpenCart account suspended messages.

Copyright Material

Always buy a license for the material which is owned by copyright laws. In case you steal and post the material, it could lead to a DMCA copyright notice. In that case, the ISP can block the entire server. To avoid such a situation, the hosting provider may block your site to protect the server.

Phishing

At times, the attackers may inject fake pages or payment methods into your OpenCart store. These may steal the credit card info of your users or other details. Hosting providers often use various mechanisms like virus scanners to find such fake pages. In case it is found on your website, it can lead to your OpenCart account getting suspended. Therefore, even without your fault, the site will be blocked.

Spam

Sometimes, hackers can use your OpenCart store to distribute spam. This spam can slow down the server and in case of email spam, the email server. This spam can redirect your users to other sites. Spam is detected when search engines crawl your site, and they may blacklist it. So, to protect the reputation of other sites on the same server, the hosting provider may suspend your OpenCart store.

Restoring the Suspended Account

To restore the account, we must first know the cause for which the account has been suspended. So, given below are the causes and how to restore the account for the same.

Managing Payments

In case your OpenCart account is suspended for a lack of payment, make sure that the first step is to pay what you owe. Once paid, get in touch with the customer care and inform them of the payment for quick account restoration. To avoid this issue in the future, make sure you follow steps like:

• Opt for reminders from the hosting provided like calls, emails, etc.
• On your personal level, use the reminder in your phone to remind of payments.
• If the hosting provider’s emails end up in the trash, add it to your trusted contact.
• See if there is an option to automate the payment.

Limiting Server Resources

To find out the details of the OpenCart account suspended due to the overuse of server resources, check the emails sent by the company. Follow the steps mentioned in these emails to fix your OpenCart store suspension. In case it is affecting the functioning of your store and you require more resources, go for higher plans. You can always find something for your needs.

Complying with the TOS

• Read the TOS of your hosting provider by visiting their site. Note down the section where your issue pops up, i.e., copyright, illegal content, etc.
• Remove any content which has been issued with a DMCA notice and contact your hosting provider once done. Use content which is an open-source license in its place.
• In the case of plagiarism, you can use online tools like Quetext to freely check the plagiarism of your content before posting.
• For phishing and spam issues, refer to the email sent by the host to see if it mentions the infected file. If there’s any, remove it immediately. However, the infection may reoccur if there is a backdoor.

Malware Cleanup

In order to clean the malware infection, it is important to detect it first. To do so, see if the emails sent by the host mention any infected file. Otherwise, use free online scanners like this one by Astra.

You can also refer to the Google security tab in case of blacklisting. If you know when the infection first occurred, you can check all the files modified on that date. To do so, login to the store via SSH and run the following command:

find /path-of-www -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %TT %pn' | sort -r

Check and remove malicious code from all the modified files manually. In case you doubt some code, comment it out and contact Astra. The core files can be replaced by the official OpenCart repo. If you have the site back up, that can also come handy in replacing infected files.

Once you are sure that the malware infection is gone, contact your hosting provider and inform about the steps taken by you. They may restore your account in some time after review. However, if you are unable to remove the malware after multiple attempts, contact professionals.

Conclusion

As seen, there are a number of issues that can lead to OpenCart suspended message. Therefore, it is recommended to find out the issue before getting to fix it. The best way to deal with this situation is to work with the guidelines of the hosting provider. To prevent the most common issue of the malware, it is recommended to use a firewall or security solution of some sort. Astra provides the right product tailored to the needs of small to large OpenCart stores. Moreover, it is absolutely easy to use by any user. Take a demo yourself and believe.

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