11/14/2023 0 Comments Instagram help email“At its core, verification is a way for people to know that the notable accounts they are following or searching for are exactly who they say they are. In short, if you see a blue checkmark next to an account’s name be it a celebrity, influencer, or brand, it means it’s the real deal. Speaking of cloned accounts, another thing you need to watch out for are account verification scams, or verification badge scams if we want to be exact. To keep your own accounts safe, you should lock them down and keep them private, as well as be picky about who you allow to follow you. The quickest way to check whether you’re being contacted by a cloned account is to reach out to your friends through an alternative method like a phone call. ESET Security Specialist Jake Moore carried out a successful experiment where he was able to prove the viability of the scam by cloning his own account. With a bit of proper social engineering and luck, the main victims are scammed out of their hard-earned money in the belief that they are helping out a beloved friend or relative.Īnd if you think that this scam is hardly plausible and people couldn’t possibly fall for it, you’d be, unfortunately wrong. They’ll then go on to impersonate the people in the accounts they cloned and try to reach out to their friends and followers.įrom that point, the ruse is quite simple the attackers will claim that legitimate account that they have cloned has been hacked, this is the new one and that “hackers” have cleaned out the account owner’s bank accounts, or claim that the account owners are in some other kind of monetary jam. Cybercriminals can as easily clone the accounts of regular Instagram users as well. However, these clone attacks aren’t really limited to popular actors, singers, or athletes. While browsing Instagram, in search of a celebrity or sports team account you’d like to follow, chances are that you’ve stumbled upon several doppelganger accounts. Another thing to look out for is the sender’s email address: if it isn’t associated with an official email address, it most probably is a scam. To avoid falling victim to these scams, watch out for telltale signs such as poor grammar, or the use of generic greetings instead of personalized ones. And they don’t tend to stick to emails sometimes fraudsters will try to impersonate Instagram support and contact you through direct messages as well. However, if you do that, you’ll be redirected to another faux login page. Alternatively, the fraudsters may imply that you are in trouble due to copyright infringement and that you must set the record straight, by clicking on a link and filling out a form. The email usually includes a fake password reset link that, once clicked, will navigate you to a faux Instagram login page which will harvest your credentials and allow the scammers access to your account. Legitimate (L) versus fake (R) Instagram login pageĬommon strategies include evoking a sense of urgency, for example, by sending out deceptive emails claiming that someone unauthorized may have logged into your account. Simply put, the ultimate goal is to dupe you out of your personal information and access credentials, and then proceed to use them in various illicit activities – whether to perpetrate identity theft or sell them on marketplaces found in the internet’s seedy underbelly.įigure 1. If we were to use a relatively small hyperbole to describe phishing scams, we could say that they are as old as the internet itself, and it’s a type of scam cybercriminals like to return to and reuse time and time again. In this article, we look at an overview of the most common scams that you might encounter while you’re perusing your feed and connecting with other users through direct messages. That figure, representing potential targets, is bound to attract cybercriminals like bees to honey. Indeed, with over one billion monthly active users it is among the top four most popular social media networks in the world. Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms.
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