Had a request from someone with an Instagram account that got hacked recently. It was the usual method with a friend sending a message about help to recover login and then need a link from Instagram forwarded as proof that the two are really friends.

It seems like Meta has gone through a lot of loops in order to make sure to deliver no support to its customers.

There IS a nice help page (instagram.com/hacked) about being hacked or how to recover your account, but it mostly just goes around in loops between the same 2–3 pages of info but no real solutions.
They have added some method for people with pictures of themselves to recover the account by taking a new selfie and share it in the recovery process. For most Instagram shops this is not useful as they have pictures of products or "showcases" but not of the account owner (often some SoMe employee).
If in fact the user has a picture of themself posted on the account, then they are still out of luck if the hacker is just marginally smart (or read the "how to hack insta" manual that floats around the dark web). In that case the hacker has turned on 2FA on the account after taking it over. This is clever because Instagram recovery process still require you to fill in 2FA code during account recovery (the "picture of yourself" method). How dumb is that, when they start by sending a recovery number to the original address/number from the account + check that you know the previous password.

Have a missed a method in the support pages? Any solution besides knowing someone that knows someone on the inside that can help? (If you are such a person and willing to help with a single account recovery, then ping me)

#meta #instagram #nosupport #hackedaccounts #frustration #sueTheSuckers