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How I Recovered my Hacked Instagram Account

How I Recovered my Hacked Instagram Account

by Melvin · Jul 24, 2016

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.

medimode IG

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! 🙂

Filed Under: Blogging Experience, Featured Articles, Offtopic, Ramblings, Social Media Tagged With: hacked IG account, instagram account hacked, instagram account renamed, recover hacked instagram, renamed instagram account

About Melvin

A blogger, basketball junkie, headphone enthusiast, aspiring chef, traveler wannabe and a big Taylor Swift fan.

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Comments

  1. dave says

    March 19, 2017 at 3:50 am

    https://help.instagram.com/368191326593075/?ref=cr

    I can’t see any form of that sort after clicking I think my account has been hacked

    Weird.

  2. Linda says

    March 19, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    I am having the same problem. My business account has been hacked. I cannot seem to locate where to report this issue. I clicked on “I think my account has been hacked.” It is only showing this below;

    If you think your account has been hacked:

    •Change your password or send yourself a password reset email

    •Revoke access to any suspicious third-party apps

    If you’re having trouble changing your password, learn more about how to get help in the Instagram app.

    Note: After your account has been secured, you can follow these security tips to help keep it safe.

    My email was hacked as well. Please I need help!!! I am getting so frustrated right now.

  3. Jo says

    March 20, 2017 at 12:07 am

    We’re also suffering this. We followed Method 2 on the following, waiting to hear back though…

    http://www.wikihow.com/Contact-Instagram

  4. Victoria says

    March 20, 2017 at 12:52 am

    My account was stolen. They took all contents, renamed it and changed e-mail. I’ve found this link.
    https://help.instagram.com/370054663112398
    I’ve reported the issue but so far they told me that they cannot identify my using my ID

  5. Vincent Galvan says

    March 22, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    When I go to I think my account has been hacked it doesn’t give me the option to go to the like http://i.imgur.com/AzUXxFR.png I just want my account back and it doesn’t make sense please reply, the new help center is so useless and makes no sense I just want to reach the “report a hacked account page” please help

  6. Vincent Galvan says

    March 22, 2017 at 3:14 pm

    The link didn’t work nor the new one http://i.imgur.com/AzUXxFR.png the help page is literally useless they need to bring back the report a hacked account or another way to contact them.

  7. Kunal says

    March 22, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    Two of my accounts have been stolen in the space of a week. They changed my email address on my first account, then changed my password. There was no way for me to recover it.

    I created a second account. I activated the 2 step verification which means everytime I login I get a text message on my phone with a pass code. I also made sure I have a very strong password.

    I woke up this morning. My new account was hacked as well. They were able to get through my new strong password, got the pass code which was texted to my phone number. They replaced my email address to my account and have changed my password. Impossible for me to login again.

    I’m very frustrated. I factory reset my phone a few days ago thinking it was hacked. Now I really don’t know what it is.

    Instagram offers very poor support as well.

    I thinking of stopping to use instagram at all.

  8. Katarina says

    March 23, 2017 at 6:34 am

    Hi guys,

    Does anybody have a direct link how to contact instagram/report hacked account?

    I can’t seem to be able to find the contact anywhere. Please help.

  9. Marije says

    March 24, 2017 at 11:11 am

    I am facing the same problem. Account has been hacked. They changed username and email. Instagram help pages do not bring me to a report, only how to get it back with a recovery link to the new (and not mine) email address.

    I am completely at a loss what to do. This person still has all my photos but is adding half naked pictures of random girls to my account.

    There is no way to contact instagram or to let them know what is going on.

  10. Marije says

    March 24, 2017 at 11:15 am

    Hi Melvin,

    The photo of the place to submit the report is I guess old. The option does not come up. It just sends you in circles on the help pages without a way to contact them.
    I have no idea what to do. I want to get my account back or at least take my photos off.

  11. proxima.nightmare says

    March 27, 2017 at 1:26 am

    Please give me the direct link on how to change password and email cause my ig acc is been hacked too. Please help me

  12. tb says

    March 28, 2017 at 10:53 am

    Instagram has changed their support page to an infinite question loop with no option to reach out to customer support. Do you have the email address you were able to contact them at? I’d like to send a picture but I have no way to do so.

  13. torie says

    March 28, 2017 at 10:56 am

    Unfortunately since you’ve done this IG has changed their support page. There is now no longer an option to report your page as hacked. It just tells you if it was hacked how to change your password. It’s now simply an infinite question loop with no option to reach out to anyone at customer support. Do you have the email address you were able to contact them at? I’d like to send a picture but I have no way to do so.

  14. Catherine says

    March 29, 2017 at 7:40 am

    Is there a new link to go to?

  15. Colleen says

    March 29, 2017 at 11:55 pm

    you had a better experience than I had. After sending the picture of myself with the code like they requested they still couldn’t verify me as the account holder. many emails and days later I finally gained access to be able to change my password and switch my account email. I went in and deleted all the hacked pictures and perv followers which took me a very long time btw. I went from 14 followers to over 3k in the time trying to fix this! After all of this I got an email from Instagram that my account was being deleted because of the content that the hacker had posted. I emailed to fight it and never heard back. So I just created a new account.

  16. Mike says

    March 30, 2017 at 6:26 am

    Help, anyone has the correct link that can take us to the form to recover my hacked account? The app help support is not useful and it brings be back to the login screen when I don have access to my email, username and password. Please help.

  17. Jake says

    March 31, 2017 at 1:00 am

    Same here ugh i hate Instagram

  18. Nicolas says

    March 31, 2017 at 3:04 am

    Hi My account has been hacked yesterday, change of name, gone private but my profile photo still on (a friend could made a screen capture of it). Lost more than 4k followers, 5k posts and ppl I followed. How to contact instagram and report it ?

    Please help

  19. Nicolas says

    March 31, 2017 at 3:12 am

    Hi My account has been hacked as well yesterday, change of name, gone private but my profile photo still on (a friend could made a screen capture of it). Lost more than 4k followers, 5k posts and all the ppl I followed. How to contact instagram and report it ?

    Please help

  20. Pam says

    April 1, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    I’ve also been hacked! The Instagram help team is USELESS!!

    I’ve tried every step possible under the “think you’ve been hacked” help page and it still gets me no where as the hacker has changed both my username and email login!

    I’ve sent in reports to the “Imposter report”, “Abuse” and “Exploitation” section of the help desk and every time i get a reply it state “This avenue is for Impostering/Abuse/Exploration reporting only. Please follow the steps if you think your account has been hacked”…..YA NO SHIT! As much as I try to ask them nicely to forward my several reports to the HACKING TEAM, they do shit all and write back the same response. Do departments at Instagram not speak to one another? Are they in different countries? Why is it sooooo difficult for someone to say, i’ll send your request to the correct team.

    I’m soooo frustrated at this point.

    What pisses me off the most is the hacker, has taken my PRIVATE account made it public and is sharing half naked girl post, YET MY PHOTOS ARE STILL listed as well!!!! My personal life posted alongside with these HORRIBLE photos!!! over 4000 dirty men followers now seeing my life. =(

    I’m at the point of crying that how unhappy I am with Instagram!

  21. John says

    April 5, 2017 at 5:01 am

    Hey Kunal,

    This happened to me as well. No idea how the broke through my two-factor authentication. Instagram Support is a dead-end. They don’t understand the issue. Doesn’t even feel like I am speaking with a real person.

    Have you had any success trying to reclaim your account?

  22. Ramit says

    April 5, 2017 at 11:16 pm

    Here is the link to contact Instagram Support in case your Account is hacked

    https://help.instagram.com/contact/740949042640030

  23. Yaqoub says

    April 6, 2017 at 6:09 pm

    Damn instagram. They don’t want to support us.

  24. Mitch says

    April 7, 2017 at 11:22 pm

    My account has been hacked similar what you guys have reported. Instagram help is dead-end and they are not even suspending the reported hacked account. Its full of nude girls and my photos are still there.

    Anyone manage to get around the help support for instagram?

  25. xinyinglxy says

    April 12, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    Thanks dear, reading your blogpost has saved me much hassle and pain! I was having similar problems, and the hacker hacked into my account, changed my username and email address etc. Everything is similar to what you posted, but I am just fortunate to have come across your blogpost and realised that the suspicious looking account was actually still mine and I managed to log in alright, changed back to my credentials and secured the account. I was also extremely fortunate that the hacker did not remove my pictures, nor did he upload any substances of inappropriate content onto my account. However, I do notice that there’s this account with the username ‘theslycompany’ trying to follow my account 1 or 2 days before this hacking incident happened. I have no idea if this is just a normal advertising company, spammer or a hacker, but I thought I should post it here so that if any unlucky souls who one day ran into the same problem can be more aware of what’s happening. Thank you so much and really, dokeep your social media accounts safe with 2FA and all the privacy/security features!

  26. yasmina says

    April 12, 2017 at 8:26 pm

    it wont let me log in my accopunt and when people search it up its gone when i try loggin in it says your account is disabled because you have pretened to be someone else when i havent what can i do to get my account back please help

  27. Marie says

    April 13, 2017 at 1:53 am

    My account was hacked and PW and Email changed, this was the second time in 2 weeks. I never got it back the first time and reported it. IG deleted it once I reported it 🙁 Im so frustrated and saddened as this was my business account. It happened again this am and I had changed the PW to something that no one should of been able to figure out.

  28. NRT says

    April 13, 2017 at 10:13 am

    How are you all even leaving a report without logging in to Instagram? I can’t create a new account because, apparently, both my mobile number (now that part is scary!) and email are still associated with the hacked account.
    I’ve changed passwords on everything else, even though they weren’t the same, but just to be safe because who knows how deep the hackers did/plan to go.
    And I never really used Instagram anyway, but I can’t just let this go if my mobile and email are still attached to it.
    I’m Facebook messaging them and posting to Twitter every day. Hopefully one day they’ll get back to me …

  29. David says

    April 16, 2017 at 4:11 am

    My account has been repeatedly hacked by someone with a Russian email. They change not only the password, name on the account, but also the email attached to the account. IG support is virtually useless. I have sent three different pictures with the code they sent and my full name, making sure that the photo also shows my hand holding the info. The first two times, the response was very quick. I have been locked out of my IG account for over a week now. I have sent three “My account has been hacked” emails to support. I got the requisite: “please send a photo …..” response from the third email.. I sent yet another photo with all the required info 3 days ago. I still have not heard back from support, and subsequently, I am still locked out of my account. I have secondary authentication set up on the account, but in this case it is useless, because I have nowhere to enter the code.

    Once I regain control of my account I plan to delete it. Looking at a few pictures from folks I follow is not worth the hassle of going through this weekly. Good luck to you in the future.

  30. Novia says

    April 18, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    I just found out this morning that my account has been hacked. They changed my name, email, and password, but so far, nothing suspicious is going on my account. When I tried and clicked “forgot password” button, they said they emailed the link to a new account (something something .ru, means it’s email from Russia). I tried emailing Instagram and fortunately after a few moment they replied and told me to take a picture with code, my full name, and my former Instagram ID name. I’ve been waiting for a couple of hours now and i got worried. They are indeed too slow to handle this kind of situation.

  31. Gerald says

    April 19, 2017 at 4:51 am

    Who did you email?? i am having the exact same issue, but have yet to get ANY response from the Instagram email accounts i have sent…

  32. Chris Brooke says

    April 20, 2017 at 9:08 pm

    I am a journalist from the UK working on a news story about this Instagram hacking problem and the issues with customers not being able to report hacked accounts to Instagram. My personal account was also hacked twice in the last week or so.
    I am keen to speak to people on this blog who have had these problems and would like to talk to me about it. Please get in touch by using email address c.brooke@dailymail.co.uk
    Thanks

  33. Chris Brooke says

    April 20, 2017 at 9:11 pm

    I am a journalist from the UK working on a news story about the hacking of Instagram accounts and the problems people are having reporting the issue to Instagram. Would you contact me at c.brooke@dailymail.co.uk so I can discuss your experience with you?

  34. Erika says

    April 21, 2017 at 7:58 am

    Last night my friends informed me that my instagram account has been hacked. The hacker has posted pictures of half naked girls that are not my pictures and as a result i immediately deleted the pictures and changed my password. I thought i fixed the problem; however, this morning when I tried to get into my instagram account it appears as though it has been deleted. When i look it up it says the page no longer exists. How can i recover my account if the hacker has deleted it? How can I get in touch with instagram to fix my problem?

  35. Chris Brooke says

    April 24, 2017 at 6:33 pm

    I am a journalist in the UK working on an article about this problem after I suffered the same experience. Please can you contact me on c.brooke@dailymail.co.uk as I would like to discuss the problems you are having and the impact it has had on you. Thanks…Chris Brooke

  36. Rose J says

    April 25, 2017 at 8:40 am

    My Instagram account was hacked too by and email address ending in .ru. I filled out the hacked account form on Instagram but have not heard back. I set up a new account and with in less than 24 hours that account was hacked too. I was able to get the new account back with the email link from Instagram. What I also found is that I had a virus on my Samsung Galaxy, I would get a message Samsung Galaxy wants access to Facebook. If you get this you have a virus. Uninstall any new apps you installed and restart. If that doesn’t work you have to do a factory reset. Password updates for Facebook, email and everything else. Not sure why these guys wanted my account I only have 172 followers. So lame.

  37. Lisa Z says

    April 25, 2017 at 11:43 am

    I had the same thing happen last week. My account was hacked. They changed the email associated with it too. I have tried to contact IG through their infinite loop “help” page, which was pointless, no help at all. At this point I’d like to get control of my account back and delete it and never use IG again. The hacker changed the account name to pahadahad8217. Bastard.

  38. Shawn says

    April 25, 2017 at 10:55 pm

    I have had the same problem. Luckily the only thing that they did not change was my phone number and had Instagram send me a link to my phone to reset my password. The new email address they use is either @mail.ru or @list.ru They change the username to things like yaceadabaccaedac6440 or something similiar. I to have had little help from Instagram when my first two accounts were hacked and did not have my phone number associated with it.

  39. Sherry says

    April 27, 2017 at 6:28 am

    Can someone please te me how to delete a stolen account. It was stolen by looks like an under aged girl and has illegal videos posted on account. Plus sending sexual content to friends

  40. Priya says

    April 28, 2017 at 12:27 pm

    My instagram got hacked yesterday. Whoever it was changed my user name to a bunch of letters and numbers, changed my password, and then changed the email to some Russian email (.ru). After filling out a help/support form, IG contacted me a few hours later asking me to send in a picture of me holding a paper with my name, a verification code, and my user name (which was changed) and I still have not heard back from them. As of now nothing has been posted but I am worried. Instagram being this massive global social media company I am shocked that they do not have 1) a customer service call center 2) a better way to handle all of this.

  41. User-D says

    April 30, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    My account was hacked too.

    When I was sleeping I got two messages that my e-mail and password was changed.
    My friends told me that my account was deleted, no photos, no followers and my username was taken by some guy from Qatar named Abdullah. My account is only two letters, it is understandable why he tried real hard to hack into my account for this month.

    Even two-factor authentification didn’t work.

    I want my account with photos, username back. I used it for 4 years 🙁
    Instagram support is not helping at all 🙁

  42. Missy gibbs says

    May 3, 2017 at 1:35 pm

    Exact same thing happened to me today… so far I sent my picture with the code that they ask for to verify account… no word yet… frantically changed all my passwords to everything just in case. My account was mostly pictures of my 101 year old grandma who is on hospice. I’m so sad that someone would steal my account with these pictures that are so dear to me.

  43. Roon Cook says

    May 3, 2017 at 6:20 pm

    My instagram account got hacked a month ago. I am searching for solution to recover my account. I also contacted instagram support team but didn’t get any positive response.

  44. Ellie says

    May 7, 2017 at 4:57 am

    Hi, my Instagram & Facebook has both been hacked! I have lost photos of sentimental value that I can not replace as well as all my friends and followers! I have been trying for hours to try and get a direct contact for insta & faceboom and have had no luck (number/email). I am crying my eyes out! Please help me!

  45. Chris says

    May 9, 2017 at 3:18 pm

    It must be the same hacker. I also got hacked but someone from Russia (their mail is ending with .ru) and they’ve changed the username to something quite similar as you. They must have hacked many others accounts lately, I really hope the IG team will do something against them.

  46. Fede says

    May 9, 2017 at 11:05 pm

    My account was hacked too. Filled a form and they answered me to check my email box for a message they sent it when the hacker changed my email.

    Never received this message tho.

    Very disappointing.

    Anyone knows where we can report this lack of support? Any association?

  47. Fede says

    May 9, 2017 at 11:06 pm

    This page does not exist anymore.

  48. Nadia says

    May 15, 2017 at 2:51 am

    What email did you email them at?

  49. Mehak_khan.786 says

    May 19, 2017 at 5:53 am

    My Instagram account was hacked before 5 days ago….till now it has been hacked .I am searching solution for it

  50. Raelene says

    May 22, 2017 at 7:06 pm

    Hi I am a pianist and composer. My Instagram was hacked and now disabled. Same problems with reporting. I really need help or advice as my videos and songs are my compositions and I would like to make sure no one else is using them. How can I get a hold of Instagram.

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