The Instagram hack that has even tech-savvy users fooled

Small businesses have had their Instagram accounts hacked, leaving at least one to give up the platform altogether.

The social media fraudsters are using a technique which involves sending messages to the account holder which appear to be coming from a friend. The message asks for your help along with a link. But that link is the key for bad actors to effectively take over your account, leaving you helpless to do anything as they turn their sights on your friends.

Erika Harnish was one of those duped by the scammers. She got a message from a favourite local pizza place, along with a link, asking for her to vote for them in a competition – something she was happy to do.

“The hacker had gone back into this conversation, seeing the exact wording that they had sent to me and actually resent that to me,” she tells CityNews. “And I click on that link hoping to vote for one of my favourite chefs in the community and within seconds my entire phone went off and I was hacked.”

Harnish attempted to reach out to Instagram to fix the problem, but as she points out, “Instagram isn’t exactly a phone number that you can call.” She eventually had to take video of her face to prove her identity and her account access was eventually restored.

Giorgio Taverniti is the owner of Frank’s Pizza House in Toronto. It was his account that was taken over which then sent the link to Erika. He says he’s had mixed luck with the hackers who no longer have control of the account, but neither does he.

“They called me on my business line and they tried to blackmail me,” he tells CityNews.

Taverniti has since created a new Instagram account, but says he still wants to get the original one back, noting its important for his marketing. It took him a decade to get his 8,500 original followers – a number that dropped by roughly 1,000 when hackers started spamming.

“We actually have a business relationship with Instagram,” explains Taverniti. “They take my money, I run ads on Instagram. There should be a number I can call and speak to somebody.”

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Jessie Melo is a personal trainer who used his Instagram account to connect with clients and share their progress. But now he says he’s given up trying to get his old account back.

“My only recommendation is to try and contact as many people that are on your friends list and notify them to let them know about this process so [the hackers] don’t continue to succeed.”

Jason Hunt with Merged Media, a Guelph-based company that works with businesses on their social media, says the problem is more prevalent than ever.

“The expectation is to have your business online, is to have communication through messenger,” said Hunt, who noted more and more of his clients are reporting issues with hackers.

“You could have 10,000 followers and potentially lose it overnight. The sad part about it is its very difficult to contact an account manager or representative at Facebook or Instagram to rectify the issue.

In a written response to CityNews, Instagram says “we have sophisticated measures in place to stop bad actors in their trackers before they gain access to accounts, as well as measures to to help people recover their accounts. We know we can do more here, and we’re working hard in both of these areas to stop bad actors.”

Instagram tells CityNews they will be taking another look at Giorgio and Jessie’s accounts to see if they can be restored.