Anna:
I had an Instagram, popular, I received a decent income: 70,000 subscribers, established relationships with brands, with the audience.
I once received 11 notifications of suspicious mail logs. I thought it was a notification to the administration of the postal system, opened the last message and saw a link to confirm the password. I followed the link, entered my password twice and pressed the "confirm" button. A couple of minutes later, I received a notification about changing my password on Instagram. Messages from the inbox in my mailbox were moved to the trash, although I did not delete them.
I began to open all the applications associated with mail, and realized that I almost could not enter anywhere - half of the accounts had the same password. The scammers changed everything - the password, email address and phone number associated with the Instagram account. Later, I received a letter from the burglars. For restoring the page, they demanded $ 300 immediately, otherwise they threatened to delete the profile.
I didn’t pay the scammers, I didn’t believe that they would restore login rights.
Financial Culture Expert:
The scammers disguised their link as a standard message from an email service. This is a special case of phishing - luring out the user's personal data in the expectation of his inattention. Few people read the letters that they receive from familiar services, and attackers take advantage of this.
Hacking an Instagram account is profitable for scammers for several reasons. The most popular way to make money on a stolen account is to claim a reward for restoring access to the page.
In other cases, hackers use the page to send spam and make money online. Sometimes this type of fraud is a way to remove a business competitor, to bring forward an account with a similar topic.
How to avoid scammers?
I had an Instagram, popular, I received a decent income: 70,000 subscribers, established relationships with brands, with the audience.
I once received 11 notifications of suspicious mail logs. I thought it was a notification to the administration of the postal system, opened the last message and saw a link to confirm the password. I followed the link, entered my password twice and pressed the "confirm" button. A couple of minutes later, I received a notification about changing my password on Instagram. Messages from the inbox in my mailbox were moved to the trash, although I did not delete them.
I began to open all the applications associated with mail, and realized that I almost could not enter anywhere - half of the accounts had the same password. The scammers changed everything - the password, email address and phone number associated with the Instagram account. Later, I received a letter from the burglars. For restoring the page, they demanded $ 300 immediately, otherwise they threatened to delete the profile.
I didn’t pay the scammers, I didn’t believe that they would restore login rights.
Financial Culture Expert:
The scammers disguised their link as a standard message from an email service. This is a special case of phishing - luring out the user's personal data in the expectation of his inattention. Few people read the letters that they receive from familiar services, and attackers take advantage of this.
Hacking an Instagram account is profitable for scammers for several reasons. The most popular way to make money on a stolen account is to claim a reward for restoring access to the page.
In other cases, hackers use the page to send spam and make money online. Sometimes this type of fraud is a way to remove a business competitor, to bring forward an account with a similar topic.
How to avoid scammers?
- Register an account with a verified mailbox that supports two-factor authentication - using a password and SMS code.
- Do not enter your email address on dubious sites: suspicious online stores, portals offering free downloads of content, online casinos.
- Do not use the same combinations to authorize different pages, update your password regularly. Use complex passwords. Do not check the "Remember data" box if you access the page from a public computer. Otherwise, other users will be able to administer the account.
- Do not go to other sites through your Instagram profile. It's safer to copy the link and open it in a browser.
- Link your Instagram and Facebook accounts in the app settings. This will increase the chances of restoring access if the page is hacked: even if the fraudsters managed to change the password and mail, there is still a chance to go through authorization through the profile on the social network.
- Do not use programs to boost subscribers and likes. Fraudsters often imitate such services, request an account login and password, and then hijack the page.
