CarderPlanet
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Scammers use the ability to block Instagram accounts of deceased people to "ban" users for money.
Someone using the pseudonym Syenrai was able to temporarily block the Instagram account owned by the head of the service Adam Mosseri, convincing the support team that Mosseri had died.
The account was blocked thanks to the ability to assign a memorable status to the Instagram accounts of deceased people. This function works as follows: in the event of a person's death, his relatives can contact the support service of the service, and his account will be blocked so that no one can log in to it or change the content that has already been downloaded.
Syenrai shared screenshots of his email correspondence with Instagram support to Motherboard reporters. To assign a memorable status to Mosseri's account, the support service requested a document confirming the fact of death, for example, a death certificate or mention in the media. Syenrai said he provided a fake online obituary as proof of death.
Instagram confirmed that in September this year, Mosseri's account was indeed briefly blocked, but the company quickly resolved this problem. However, as noted by Syenrai, other users, whose accounts he blocked in a similar way, had to work hard to regain access.
All of the above suggests that obscure social media features such as memorable status can be used to harass users, including by blocking them from accessing accounts. Some scammers even offer paid services to ban Instagram users. As Syenrai explained, they simply submit any obituary recently published on the Web as proof of death to commemorate an unconfirmed page with less than a million subscribers, and it can take users up to several days to regain access.
Someone using the pseudonym Syenrai was able to temporarily block the Instagram account owned by the head of the service Adam Mosseri, convincing the support team that Mosseri had died.
The account was blocked thanks to the ability to assign a memorable status to the Instagram accounts of deceased people. This function works as follows: in the event of a person's death, his relatives can contact the support service of the service, and his account will be blocked so that no one can log in to it or change the content that has already been downloaded.
Syenrai shared screenshots of his email correspondence with Instagram support to Motherboard reporters. To assign a memorable status to Mosseri's account, the support service requested a document confirming the fact of death, for example, a death certificate or mention in the media. Syenrai said he provided a fake online obituary as proof of death.
Instagram confirmed that in September this year, Mosseri's account was indeed briefly blocked, but the company quickly resolved this problem. However, as noted by Syenrai, other users, whose accounts he blocked in a similar way, had to work hard to regain access.
All of the above suggests that obscure social media features such as memorable status can be used to harass users, including by blocking them from accessing accounts. Some scammers even offer paid services to ban Instagram users. As Syenrai explained, they simply submit any obituary recently published on the Web as proof of death to commemorate an unconfirmed page with less than a million subscribers, and it can take users up to several days to regain access.
