Before reading below please if you do 1 thing.  Stop.  Do you have two factor identification on your Instagram account?  If the answer is no- head there right now and put it on.

What happened:

On November 9th I received a notification on my instagram that my account was reported for copy-write abuse.  I then received a series of emails from instagram informing me my email was changed, my password had changed and two factor verification was turned on.  I did not do any of these actions.  As I was trying to figure out what was happening I then received the below message on my WhatsApp.  I was getting hacked.

The Problem with the Help Center for Instagram:

The work arounds DO NOT WORK and in most instances I found were not even an option.  Here are the suggested steps from Instagram’s help center if you’ve been hacked.

There was no revert this change option on email.  I responded to the email to please revert but nothing happened.

The Need more help button also did not exist.

I filled out this form and received the below email:

Translated from Turkish:

Hello there,

Thanks for contacting Instagram. We need some more information to help you get back into your account. Please reply to this message by adding the following:

1. A brief description of the issue you are facing, including the last date you were able to access your account and how you lost access.

2. The email address or mobile phone number you used to sign up for your account.

3. The device you used to sign up for your account (e.g. iPhone, Android, iPad, computer). If you registered your account on a computer or tablet, please also indicate which operating system (eg Windows, MacOS, Linux) you used when registering.

We will not be able to assist you unless you email us the information we requested above. To review our tips for logging in, visit the Help Center:

https://help.instagram.com/374546259294234/?ref=cr

Keep in mind that you can also use backup codes to complete the two-factor authentication process and log into your account.

Thanks,
Instagram Team

I responded to the above email 15 times with no answer back.

From the Hacker

Since being hacked I was being contacted by the hacker on a  daily basis through one / all of these channels; WhatsApp, Texting, + to the new instagram I setup to try to let my clients know what was happening.

Steps I took to get it back

Didn’t Work:

1. I gave up the idea my emails / calls to instagram would make any difference.  There is a call line that you can leave a message but I believe these messages go nowhere.
2. I reached out to my PR rep and asked if he could shop a story (maybe if I got press Instagram would take action.)  The story was a no go.
3. I reached out to my MAC specialist.  He connected me with a couple companies that do securities but nothing specific to getting your instagram back.

Getting Somewhere:

1. Googled like crazy.  I found out the reason most of the Instagram Help Center actions do not work- these reports are sent to auto-bots and not people.  With the amount of hacking happening with Instagram I was just 1 of thousands in the sea of hacked accounts.  Just before I was considering paying the hacker- DON’T DO THAT, I happened upon a blog that gave some good tips.
2. Make a plea via LinkedIN, facebook, twitter and any other social platform.  The trick is to find a real human that works at Facebook.  Explain what happened to you and ask all of your contacts if they know anyone that could help.  This was mine:
3. I made a contact!  A family member of a family member turned out to work from Facebook!  From there she was able to pass along my problem to the correct channel.  One of the major hold ups in the process was you need the email you used to setup your account (mine was 9 years old and I had many previous emails.)  After pulling up archived emails back in 2012 that came from instagram I was able to figure it out.
4. If this option did not work my backup plan was to get in touch with a Facebook Sales Rep.  I was going to say that I wanted to do a large sponsorship and ask to speak with someone- from there my plan was to insist my old account be recovered before moving forward.  ** The main goal just trying to get in touch with an actual human and not an auto-bot.
5. Contact Juan.  Although I did not move forward with Juan as my family contact came through- he was very responsive and got right back in touch with me.  His reviews looked great and he seems to be legit!

How to prevent this happening to you

Fist off know that business accounts with a decent amount of followers are the accounts most susceptible to hacking.  You MUST ENABLE TWO FACTOR IDENTIFICATION.  Go to your settings –> Security –> Two Factor Identification.

The age of your ‘trusted and true password’ you use for everything is over.  Always use the suggested secure password instead of re-using a password you have from other sites.  Some options for storing all of these unique passwords are:

1Password  

This has many wonderful features for small monthly fee.

Bitwarden

(Free option)  This has less features but can easily do the trick with no cost.

Make sure you enable Two Factor on any and all sites you visit on a regular basis, are attached to any of your personal info or business.

After 4 weeks we finally are back….

Thank you so much to Aunt Kathy + Kaylee!   Also thank you to the wonderful people who shared my story on Instgram from my new account.  You all are so so appreciated.❤️

I hope from the bottom of my heart this happens to no one else!

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Did you know Borrow is now offering table top?  Stemware, plates, silverware!  Yes we are doing it all and we’s so excited to bring it to you!  Checkout our Winter Holiday Package HERE to see some of the new fun things;)