Victims of hacked Instagram accounts hiring "White-Hat" hackers to get back their accounts
Perhaps we all have come through a quote - 'tit for tat'. Now the same is true for most of the Instagram users whose account has being hacked and are now turning to 'white-hat' hackers to get their Instagram accounts returned to them. The users have been unsatisfied as Instagram has been slow to give them back their accounts, even after creators following necessary steps for account recovery. Despite repeated calls and emails to Instagram to help them out, hacked influencers say they only get unhelpful automated emails in return.
The victims on social media have turned their online activity into remunerative full-time jobs, hawking products from advertisers to tens of thousands of followers. These social media accounts, on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, have become key to their livelihoods and hackers have taken notice.
"I had an emotional breakdown," one of the Victim Cassie Gallegos wrote in a blog post. "I had worked so hard to become an influencer, to make the life I wanted to be living, I had partnerships with Hotels.com, PierHouse Key West, Dick's Sporting Goods, Living Proof lined up to name a few. GONE. All of my WORK WAS GONE."
According to a report, many hackers gain access to victim's accounts by posing as brands interested in sponsoring or advertising. Using emails containing phishing links, hackers access an influencer's Instagram account and change the email and password, which then locks out the account's rightful owner.
But when affected victims have reached out to Instagram to recover their accounts, the Facebook-owned platform has reportedly been unhelpful. Instagram's policies say that without an account's email and password, users need to go through a verification process to ensure the user is actually the account owner. The process includes taking a selfie with a code that Instagram sends directly to them written on a piece of paper.
Despite following appropriate steps, influencers told that their efforts were "to no avail." One Instagram influencer said in a blog post she only gained back her account after fans and others also reached out to Instagram and piled on the pressure.
Users then turned to "third-party social media experts" and "white-hat hackers" to help them recover their accounts. One such expert told on a report that he has tricks to speed up the progress on Instagram's end in recovering an account. Another method is identifying the person behind the hack, and then hacking that person as well in order to get the account back.
"We know that losing access to your account can be a distressing experience," an Instagram spokesperson said in a statement. "We have sophisticated measures in place to stop bad actors in their tracks before they gain access to accounts, as well as measures to help people recover their accounts."
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