Others are reporting the same attack on Reddit. 'I made, at most, one minor mistake, and lost my account,' he said.
Now he believes his Instagram is being used to send out cryptocurrency-related spam. But he said Instagram has not been very helpful in getting his account back. So, I replied with the image,' he wrote.īut he said the image of the web address and his reply message actually provided enough information for the attackers to make their move.Īfter that, he said he received multiple messages from Instagram, including notes about changing his phone number to a number in Nigeria, as well as a new email associated with his account. I thought, 'How can I be hacked by sending a PNG image?' After all, it wasn't a reset link for my account. Rather than asking me to click the link, which I'd never do in a million years, it simply asked me to send him back a screenshot of the message including the link. 'His message asked for my help and included a reset link for their account. He received what he thought was a message from a friend. Steve Vaughan-Nichols, senior contributing editor at publication ZDNet, reported on May 23 that this happened to him. Using this, victims say, they can start the process of stealing your account. Attackers are taking over Instagram accounts by sending you a message and asking for an image of your screen.
