Instagram Account Thefts and Fake Copyright Infringement Notices
The massive development of all kinds of platforms and social networks presupposes the emergence of a huge number of works of authorship. The Instagram app for posting photos and visual stories has long broken all popularity records. Not so long ago, scammers invented a new scheme to hijack popular Instagram accounts.
If a blog has a large number of subscribers, then it carries a greater risk of account theft. Instagram account hijacking is now done through fake copyright infringement notices.A little About Copyright
From the moment the work is created, copyright begins to apply to it. All publications created by the authors - photos, melodies, video footage - are protected by law.
Users publish not only their pictures and videos. Sometimes reposts, pictures made by third-party authors appear in publications, and popular songs or soundtracks are often used in edited videos.
Users who are not used to the fact that freely available photos, as well as audio and video compositions, are protected by copyright, are often surprised on forums that their accounts were blocked at the request of the copyright holder.
By uploading material to Instagram that is wholly or partially owned by someone else, you can expect that this will violate other people's copyrights, which means that it is quite possible to get a penalty for your actions. Copyright on Instagram is protected by law along with the rights to any work of intellectual property. Recently, Instagram has been strictly enforcing copyright protection in publications.
Fake Notifications
A false complaint can also lead to the deletion of your Instagram account (in this case, Instagram will restore the deleted posts). This is not the first time that popular Instagram users are targeted by scammers.
“Your account will be permanently deleted due to copyright infringement,” reads the email. It looks quite official: both the official header and the Instagram logo, and the sender's address is very similar to the real one, for example, mail@theinstagram.team or info@theinstagram.team.
The notice says you only have 24 hours (48 hours in some cases) to file an appeal. In the message itself, you will also find a button to appeal the complaint - Review complaint. If you click it, you will be taken to an extremely believable phishing page. There is a link on it, which supposedly can appeal against the deletion of the account.
After clicking on the link, you will be prompted to enter your Instagram account information. But that's not all - then a new message appears: "You need to verify the authenticity of your application and make sure that the email address matches the one on Instagram." If you agree to check the address, a list of possible domains will appear on the screen. After choosing one of them, you will see a proposal to specify an email address and (suddenly!) A password from it.
You will then see a message for just a few seconds that your request is being processed, after which you will be redirected to the genuine Instagram site. This is another trick that adds credibility to the scam.
As soon as your username and password are in the hands of intruders, the latter will gain access to your Instagram profile and can change the data to restore it. Then they can start sending spam and other malicious material from it or demand a ransom to return the account. Not to mention, they will have access to your email.
How to Protect your Instagram Account
Here Are Some Tips to Help Keep your Instagram Account Safe:
- Don't click on suspicious links.
- Always check the URL in the address bar. If instead of Instagram.com it says something like 1stogram.com or instagram.security-settings.com, etc. - in no case enter any personal data and generally close the page as soon as possible.
- Use only the official social network app installed from the official app store (for example, Google Play for Android or App Store for iOS).
- Do not enter your Instagram account information to log into other services and applications.
- Turn on two-factor authentication in your Instagram and email settings.
- Use reliable protection to filter out suspicious emails and prevent you from opening phishing pages.

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