How to safeguard your Instagram from hackers

Well I say hackers.  But in the vast majority of cases when people lose their accounts, it is not to hackers, but rather scammers, taking advantage of our desire to either not have done something wrong, or to help someone in trouble out.

What do I mean by this?

There are more and more scams being pedaled in the Instagram world these days and I keep seeing people fall prey to them and lose their accounts as a result.

A very large Australian health and wellness account just had this happen last week. 

One day they were posting stunning photos of their beautifully branded products to their (pushing 90k) audience.  The next there was an abrupt name change and truly awful content being posted. Poof! Just like that years worth of time and money evaporated. 

No doubt an awful lot of anguish ensued behind the scenes.  

So today, in order that you keep your account safe, let’s look at what sort of scams you may be the target of, and take some simple steps to help keep your account safe.

First up- what should you do if you get a strange message on Instagram, that doesn't seem quite right?

A DM telling you that you have breached copyright conditions on Instagram, you’ve been selected for a free Blue tick, or as I had once, that an account I followed needed me to send them a verification code to help them access their account (weird, right?).

If that message asks for an authentication code or password of ANY VARIETY, for ANY REASON :

1.Ask yourself – is this request something that I personally have triggered through trying to access my account, or is it a request that seemingly has come out of nowhere?

2.If you did not trigger the request yourself, block the account and delete the message if it came through your DMs and delete and ignore it totally if it came through your phone/email/ two factor authentication. If you personally are not trying to access your account, it means someone else is. And we can’t have that, right?

3.Instagram have publicly announced that they will NEVER send you a DM in Instagram. Any message you get in your DMs “from them” is by default a scam. Block those accounts without hesitation.  

Now, what about backing your account up?

Imagine if you can for a second, losing everything you have ever posted on Instagram.. All the pictures, stories, videos, messages, campaigns, correspondence…. Everything. In the blink of an eye. Gone. Horrible, right?

Well that is the experience most people have when they lose their account to a scam or are hacked, and very few get their accounts back.

Having a copy of your account downloaded and stored offsite is one way to mitigate this horrific loss, and potentially a way that you can help prove to Instagram that you are the rightful owner of the account if required.

If you are starting to get a large Instagram following, you may want to program quarterly (or even monthly) data downloads into your diary.

How to download a copy of your Instagram data, the short version (things change with apps though so if you can't make it work this way, that may be the case):

This is the order of things you want to follow to get your download:

Go to your profile

Tap on the three horizontal lines in the top right hand corner

Go to  your Accounts centre

Tap on Your Information and Permissions

Export Your Information

Create Export

Choose the Instagram profile to export info from if you have more than one 

Choose where to export to, whether Device or an External service like Dropbox 

You can then also choose to export regularly which would be a good plan really.

Some quick, final things to consider:

*Make sure that your Instagram password is a good strong password and that it isn't used by you as a password anywhere else.

*In the Security section of your Settings set up Two-Factor authentication

*And if you really want to dot your i's and cross your t's do a Security Checkup from within the app.

- Go to the three bars in the top right of your profile page

-Settings and Privacy

-Accounts Centre

-Password and Security

-Security Checkup

 Yay you! Your account is now safe!

You can continue to create beautiful content for your audience, and build your account,  knowing that you are much less likely to lose all that hard work.

Oh and a final note. If you are ever sent anything about Instagram that feels uncomfortable or you are pressured to take action immediately, assume you are the target of a scam. Give yourself the time to appraise the real situation, and maybe even talk to someone before you act on a request. Send me a DM if you don’t know anyone you trust to ask. Pausing and appraising the reality of what you are presented with may save you much heartache in the long run.

Xx Ilona