Getting one of your social media channels hacked isn’t anything new these days however it doesn’t make it less frightening whenever that happens. Recently my Instagram account got compromised and you bet that made me crazy even though I know I’m the one to blame for not having a secure enough password. I’ll detail how it happened and how I recovered it in this blog post.
I use Instagram a lot as it’s as personal to me as my Facebook account. In case you’re not following me yet, I love to post food pictures, headphones and things that I’m up to. Most of the things that I do online outside of my work-stuff are mostly personal so there really isn’t any business purpose or value for the account.
How it all unfolded
Everything started when I woke up one day and realized I have plenty of ‘request to follow’ notifications on my phone from my IG account which was weird since my account is public. I was gobsmacked when I found that the account logged-in became ‘janaehumbert99ft’ having a profile picture of a fat butt and a description that clearly baits perverts to follow the account and click the suspicious bio link.
I panicked immediately since my work Instagram account was also logged-in on the phone and I feared that it might get compromised too so I decided to just log out everything. My worst fears were realized when I found that the email address associated to my Instagram account had read emails about changing the account’s password and email address. This meant the hacker not only changed everything on my IG account through having access to my email, but possibly all other sites where it is the main email address (there’s a lot!).
Like any sane person would do, I changed the password of my email immediately and made sure it’s a tough one. I went back to my Instagram case and wrote them detailing everything through this page. At this point, I didn’t have any ideas as to what happened to my account. The way I explained was I thought my account was replaced with another account on my email address, then changed the email address, and then later on deleted my original Instagram account. So to summarize, my email did not have any IG account associated to it anymore since the hacker successfully was able to transfer it to a different email.
After some hours on the same day I was hacked, the new IG account named ‘janaehumbert99ft’ also disappeared which made me think the hacker might have renamed it to something else anew so it become untraceable for me. Another possibility that I thought of was Instagram disabling the account while investigating the issue.
Painful experience with Instagram Support
It was surprising that Instagram was slow and unhelpful at the beginning, oftentimes not understanding the issue at hand. It took 4 and a half days before I got a reply that made me think I’m not close to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
They made me write a code, my full name, email address and previous username on a piece of paper, then take a picture of that with me holding it. It sounded weird but I understood that it’s how they could really verify me and my claims.
Instagram support replied after a couple of hours saying my account has been reactivated again. Whew! Problem finally solved right? No!
I still couldn’t login, couldn’t reset password since the email was still not associated to any account and I couldn’t do anything! I emailed them back with that and they replied with almost just the same message which is ‘we have reactivated your account again, sorry about that’. But I still couldn’t login!!!
Much to my dismay I discovered that the account ‘janaehumbert99ft’ has been reactivated again and my friends started telling me that they’re seeing my photos under someone else’s account. Two things became clear to me then.
First was the ‘janaehumbert99ft’ account is really my previous Instagram account. It was just renamed but that’s my account. Remember at the beginning that I was under the impression my original account was swapped out and deleted but it didn’t seem to be the case.
Second was they simply reactivated the account using the same credentials, same email which I didn’t have access with! WTF!!! I got so pissed off because that only makes the hacker do more harm since the account has been reactivated again and more importantly, he can access it again. I was under his mercy basically as he can rename it, change the email and make it untraceable, or worse, start posting nude pictures or what have you and start alienating my followers! So stupid Instagram!
I sent successive replies explaining what I explained above but I did not get a reply on the same and the following day. I got a little worried that I might not be doing myself a favor as I might come across as annoying to whoever is handling my case.
I’ve decided to then just write a new report using the page I linked above. There I explained everything again carefully and made sure it didn’t become too long. It’s a little risky since I thought that could essentially restart my case again and then add up another week to it. Urgghh!
When I was explaining, I mentioned briefly that someone was already handling my case but I was not happy with how it’s being handled. I gave the supporter’s name so the new supporter can hopefully coordinate with him. I still summarized my case in my report and included my realizations that were not there the first time I reported the issue. I tried my best to keep everything not too long but still clear.
After more than 12 hours, a new support person from Instagram replied and much to my delight, it was the reply I was expecting to get from their previous support person. I finally got a link where I can change the password of the account and once I’m able to do that, I proceeded with changing the email back to one that I can access and then swapping back my own details like my username, description and website. Finally I changed the profile picture from the fat girl’s butt to my pretty face. I can’t believe I have my Instagram account back again!
What happened next was I unfollowed a lot of people since the hacker’s strategy seemed to be following lots of male accounts and then get them to follow back or click the suspicious bio link that could get them hacked. I got a minor boost in followers count which subsided down once they realized they’re following an account that was not what they thought it would be.
What to learn from this
There’s plenty to learn from this experience and all of them are unfortunately very basic which we just ignore until we become a victim. I changed all my passwords to a more secure one, enabled two-factor authentication whenever available, and made sure I’m aware what accounts are connected to what emails.
The funny but slightly annoying thing is I could’ve easily just gotten my account back had I not logged out of it on my phone. I could’ve gotten into the settings, changed my password, email and bio and I didn’t have to go through the whole draining process at all.
But if that happened, I’m pretty sure there’s a good chance I won’t change my passwords, make my email addresses more secure, you name them! I would then just be delaying the inevitable.
Not sure I can say right now the learning experience was worth it but hey, my accounts are more secure now, I have my IG back and that’s all that matters! 🙂
mail.ru is a “gmail” for russians
I just had the same happen to me today, email ending in .ru and I’m horrified. I use my account for business and seeing all these stories of instagrams lack of service is very worrying. Did any one get their case resolved recently?
Hi Rose, some of the commenters here have confirmed to me via private message that they’ve sorted it out using the same steps I’ve done. But I agree with you that it’s very worrying especially that a lot of people are experiencing this. :-\
OMG!!! I’m experiencing the same thing and it’s frustrating I can’t log in my Instagram account I really don’t want to loose all my kids and grandkids pictures I can’t even log in the hacker change everything from my name to my bio and email I’m so sad and upset cause it was my personal account I already reported to Instagram and did everything they told me to do from taking a picture holding this paper with a number my full name and username but they haven’t answer me back and it’s true is hackers from Rusia cause I saw that the email ended up with ru. I guess Instagram take their sweet time cause I’m not a celebrity like the kardashians or Beyoncé.
Wow the same thing happened to me 3 days ago and my account was private unbelievable they change everything from my email my bio now is a half naked woman there nasty crap did what Instagram told hold a paper with a number full name and username the messed up part about is that is so obvious my account is hacked cause of those naked women and my real pictures are my kids grandkids and my family members my animals still waiting a response from Instagram I did what they told me if they can’t do anything about I will never open another account with them.
The same thing happened to me today. What did the email address from instagram support look like? Mine looked sketchy and didn’t have a name attached so I’m worried that was spam too.
I am also curious about this. This was the same type of email address that emailed me with the same instructions after I submitted a hacked account report.
I’m dealing with this same issue with my daughters account. 6 hours ago I sent the picture of her with code on paper and haven’t heard a damn thing. This person hacking is changing everything on her acct and making nasty comments. The person actually just had a convo with me when I sent message from my Instagram. This can ruin a person. She is trying to be recruited into a college and I’m so mad that Instagram is taking their sweet ass time
This just happened to me this morning. I sent the pic of me holding up the paper with the number.
How long does it take? I am so frustrated and worried about someone having my pictures and my account.
It depends. Mine overall took an entire week but others in the comments are saying they were able to get their account back in less than 3 days.
Hi Courtney, that is really unfortunate 🙁 I’m hoping Instagram responds to your issue asap so it won’t escalate further.
I just got hacked too and am totally struggling getting in contact with instagram. What email did you guys send to? I tried to send to support because I got messages coming back saying that the email does not exist.
Hi,
Same happened to me 2 days ago. Instagram is asking the e-mail address which i used to open that account. I have sent them the e-mail address, but they did not accept that. The hacker changed all, and now i see an e-mail like that a*********i@m***.ru
I will close all other accounts and will tell all around how instagram is unsecure place until they do something better
How did you contact Instagram so they could ask for the picture of you holding your information? I have looked all over the place and haven’t found a way to contact them.
How do you contact Instagram to report that your account has been taken over (hacked) so you can get the code to use in your picture?
Same thing to me. How do you contact instagram directly???
Courtney where did you get the email address to Instagram? My daughter got hacked this morning and we can’t find a way to contact Instagram. HELP!!
this happened to me today. cant find out how to contact instagram. help?
Did instagram solve your problem yet?
It happened to me yesterday. How can you report this to instagram??
This happened to me this Tuesday while I was on a cruise. I’m clicking on the link but it’s not giving me an option to write Instagram. Can you please share the link again so I can write them s letter. This would be greatly appreciated.
May I ask what is the ‘code’ and where you sent it so I can do the same thing.
Thanks for this useful post!
the same thing has happened to me but I cant work out how to get the report started with instagram. There seems to be nowhere on their website for me to make a complaint.
Do you have advice on how to get the process started?
Thanks!
Hi Tom, I linked to the page in my blog post above, but here it is if you missed it – https://help.instagram.com/368191326593075/
This is happening to me too, and I cant figure out how to directly contact instagram about this! It seems they have taken the link down to contact them on their help page
By the looks of things Instagram has changed their support website in the last few days. There now appears to be no way of getting in contact with them to begin a hacked account report.
I’ve had my account hacked but now have no means of letting them know.
It does look like there has been a rise in these sort of hacks recently so perhaps Instagram are updating their support services? I can’t imagine that they will just leave it with no way of sorting these things out..
Hi Melvin
Thanks for the link – but I think instagram have changed their support website? There appears to be no way of getting in touch with them to start a report process now. The only options on that link are changing passwords or removing third party apps.
Does the page look like it has changed to you? My theory is that these hacks have escalated in the last few days and perhaps insta are trying to come up with a new way for people to report the problem…as it seems odd that there would be no way to rectify this.
Either that or I’m just being very stupid and cant work out how to contact them!
Thanks again for your post
I can’t log into my account nor retrieve the password via email because the email i used is not registered to that account anymore! 🙁
The page that is supposed to report a hacked account of instagram doesn”t exist anymore and I have NO WAY of contacting them!!! I am furious! I just want to delete the account and don’t want a stranger seeing my photos and using them!! HELP!!
DONT SEND A PIC. THIS IS THE HACKER. IF U LOOK AT THE EMAIL AND WHO ITS FROM ITS A SUSPICIOUS EMAIL.
same thing happened to me today, and my email address is no longer attached to my account. I am locked out and there is no way to contact instagram, they keep asking me to sign in so that i can change the password. But I CAN’T sign in… my account has been hacked! What is the email address? It is no longer on the pager where you get the information about being hacked and reporting it. I would very much like to email them to shut it down. thanks
I’ve been hacked too and cant find how i contact instagram…. theumy make it impossible… has anyone found a way to report it?
It seems that instagram had disabled the reporting function for hacked accounts.
Did you find out? I really need to get this sorted
Hi there! This is my same issue. Did you get this resolved? If so, approximately how long did it take?
Thanks!
Another victim here….
The link to the page where I can contact IG is not working or just bringing me to a page where there is no option to contact them, suggestions?
This link just takes me to the site informing me about steps I can’t make to get my account back. Someone hacked my account and changed my password and changed my email to recover everything so there’s no way for me to get into the account. How did you file the report or get someone to talk to you? Please help I’m very on edge about this.
Happened to me today and the ‘Hacked Accounts’ information in Instagram Help is bogus as it does not detail what to do if the email address has been change. 🙁 I reported a problem through the other account I had and detailed what happened. I also sent a message through Facebook and Tweeted @Instagram. So far I have not found a contact email though. Melvin, how were you able to contact them???
I have the same problem. I can find anywhere on their page that allows me to file a report
I think they removed any way to report such a case. There’s nowhere to do it on that page, or anywhere else for that matter.
Ugh, it happened to me too. I can log in, but all of my images and followers are one. I got that email that looked like it was from instagram and when I was finally able to log in, my email address had been changed to the something similar with .ru extension.
Hi Rose,
I have had the same for the last two weeks. The hackers email is ending in .ru. I have deleted my IG account and tried to reset it four times, but each time within minutes the hacker changes the password so I can’t get into it. I have emailed IG twice. Two weeks ago and on Wednesday and still not had any response from them. I find it so frustrating and feel violated as I had photos of my kids on my account.
Louise
I also have been trying to contact Instagram! This has happened once before and the form I used is now gone! The link in the post now only takes you to an unhelpful “help” page advising you to change your password and giving “security tips.” As if I wouldn’t have already done that if I could!!!
How can we contact instgram now? No report options again on there website.
My Instagram account is hacked, the hacker has changed my username and the my email linked to my Instagram from the inside! I can not reach any tech support or anything!
Instagram help center is useless!
Does any body have an email to reach Instagram support center or a phone number or any thing…….??
I have the same issue! 🙁
Hello all, when you click the link and choose the “I think my account has been hacked” option, you will be presented with this page – http://i.imgur.com/AzUXxFR.png. Just tick the same options and hit submit and you should be able to submit that report to Instagram.
Let me know if that helps!
See my latest comment here: https://www.melvinblog.com/2016/07/recovered-hacked-instagram-account/comment-page-2/#comment-158862
See my latest comment here: https://www.melvinblog.com/2016/07/recovered-hacked-instagram-account/comment-page-2/#comment-158862
See my latest comment here: https://www.melvinblog.com/2016/07/recovered-hacked-instagram-account/comment-page-2/#comment-158862
See my latest comment here: https://www.melvinblog.com/2016/07/recovered-hacked-instagram-account/comment-page-2/#comment-158862 Apologies for the late reply Tom!