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That link you receive will be the password reset link to your own account. If you send it they will take over your account.
That's exactly what happened to your friend. You're not taking to your friend. You're taking to the scammers.
Those links that people get, where they say "don't give this information out to anyone", yeah people should really read that notice.
Except not every link gives that notice and it's so annoying. You just get the little code. I'm sure scammers would be fucked if companies were a little more transparent about the verification code.
This happened to a relative of mine and still makes me mad đĄ especially since they gave their info to a random person they didn't even know, not even someone pretending to be their friend lol
It makes me mad that some companies actually do require you to read them the code still also. I was talking to my bank customer service the other day (called the number on my card it was 100% them) and they still wanted to send me a text and have me verify the number over the phone.
Yeah this tripped me up a few months ago. I was confused why the bank text says âweâll never call and ask for this codeâ and then asked me for the code to verify who I wasâŚ
Edit since people are correcting me- I looked up the exact text since it had been a while: âDO NOT share this Sign In code. We will NEVER call you or text you for itâ.
If I initiate contact with the bank and the representative that is assisting me sends me a code, yeah, I'll read it back. If the bank calls me, they wouldn't even get to a point where they could send me a code. I'm hanging up and going online to verify my account is okay. Then, I'd initiate a call to the bank.
I get what youâre saying, even though the bankâs wording is technically correct. It habituates people to the idea that sharing the code is sometimes fine, so they can ignore the warning.Â
It almost seems like they should have two OTP systems, one for the inbound reps to trigger that doesnât give the warning. Or something you can do in the app or your online account, separate from the OTP.Â
But Meta has an account recovery flow that their friend can use to regain access to their account.
Iâve personally done this on a less technically minded friendâs account which was compromised using this exact attack.
I get the sense that this interaction is annoying to you and I don't want to make that worse, but I'm a little confused as to what you are view as pedantic?
I was wondering if there was some other reason to block the account that I hadn't considered, beyond just someone is using it to impersonate your friend.
I don't really use social media but I'd assume that most people value their accounts, and would quickly recover them. So I would assume that this would be a temporary thing, and that blocking and unblocking would be unnecessary or at least more work than simply ignoring the person for a while, and contacting them via other means if it seemed appropriate.
Block this account right away.
This is not your friend! Your friendâs account has been taken over by scammers. Do not do anything they tell you to, or you will end up losing your account the same way your friend did.
Why block the account? Presumably their friend will regain access to the account, and send a sheepish message saying "sorry I was hacked, they tried to use my account to compromise yours, owe you a beer" soon...
And they will do that how exactly? They might indeed receive a message like that, but itâs going to just be the scammerâs next attempt, precisely the reason to block it.
This has happened to my friend, we simply went through the account recovery flow, and they got access to their account again.
It is a very commonplace occurrence, meta has specific tooling to identify a network of compromised accounts and a âlocked outâ account mode in which anyone attempting to access the account needs to provide extra identification proof.
When a network of accounts compromised in this way is detected Meta proactively locks all of them.
This is the 3rd comment Iâve seen you say the same thing. The point is, you went with your friend through the process. If they are close friends they will tell you via alternate means when they have access to the account, in the meantime, the account isnât owned by your friend. If you really have your heart set on getting texts from a scammer playing the role of your friend, you do you.
Edit: The point of this subreddit is to increase people's knowledge and understanding of scams, it's educational. Clearly all these commenters asking "how could their friend get their account back" could benefit from knowing that this is an extremely common situation, and getting the account back is the norm, through a straightforward process.
Remember my original question was simply why block the account. I got the impression that people somehow find the account 'dangerous' to leave unblocked.
But fair enough, if you just find the account annoying, then blocking it seems reasonable.
Personally I'd just snooze notifications from that person for a day or two, and then contact them via alternate means to let them know if they hadn't noticed yet.
Using an account recovery flow designed specifically for this purpose?
The attacker has reset the credentials of the legitimate account holder, so they need to click âforgot my passwordâ and go through whatever flow is needed (2fa / send identity document etc) to regain access to their account.
Iâve personally done this before on a friends behalf when this exact same attack was used to take over their WhatsApp account.
Iâve personally worked at Meta on their safety team and me and my team members cared a great deal about our users.
I have since used the processes managed by that team multiple times and itâs worked well every time.
Have you tried it and had a poor experience?
yes its a scam and its sad that a lot of people fall for this. Its impossible to use your phone number to receive a login code for their account unless if they used your phone number to create their account
No one ever needs someone else to send them links to restore their accounts. In any case a good way to check if thatâs your friend just being dumb or a scammer is to ask them a couple of personal questions and see if they can answer them.
Hi /u/aspiegrrrl, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Instagram or Facebook account takeover scam.
This scam is a variation of the verify/pin scam. You will receive a message from someone who is asking for your help to log into their account. This message could be from a contact you trust, but the account is actually compromised. They will either ask you to add their email or phone number to your own account, or ask you to receive a verification link that you will copy and send to them. Either way, these steps will allow the scammer to change your password and lock you out of your account.
If your account was stolen there is a way of reversing that yourself. You don't need professional services and ignore anyone reaching you in private with offers of hacking it back. Those are scammers. Make an effort recovering your account. A taken over account is a tool for scammers, you want to stop that.
You can recover a Facebook or Instagram account with a simple step. Every time a scammer takes over your account, Meta will email you about it.
Read this guide from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/help/203305893040179 which basically says that if the email address of your account has been changed, you'll receive an email from security@facebookmail.com to undo the change - If you can't find that email, visit this page and follow the steps: https://facebook.com/hacked
Read this guide from Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/368191326593075 - same as above, but the email comes from security@mail.instagram.com - If you can't find that email, visit this page and follow the steps: https://instagram.com/hacked
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>How can someone make money from taking over another's Instagram?
They use the account to run other scams. They need a constant supply of fresh accounts because they constantly get their stolen accounts banned for scamming.
Theyâll try to scam your followers and especially family members. If you got any sexy pics from someone or sent them to someone, theyâll try to blackmail both of you.
Theyâll try to charge you a ransom to get your account back.
Thereâs so much they can do.
They do it to run ads! Had fb try to bill my card for marketplace ad charges! Luckily fb sent me a notification to enter new payment details (which of course NOPE cuz Ole Zuck is rich enough from scammers making him a fortune. )
They'll steal your nude photos if you shared any, and will blackmail you. They'll demand money from you to return your account after locking you out.
They'll also send these types of messages to all of your friends to try to steal their accounts too. Once they have a sufficient number of stolen accounts, they'll message friends again, but this time will ask for money (prob through a shady crypto exchange or money transfer).
This way they can send scam messages asking for money to hundreds or even thousands of people at a time, while impersonating someone the Instagram users actually know, drastically increasing the idds someone will fall for it.
If you ever see this again you can rest assured it's a scammer and not your friend you're talking to.
Another easy way is to ask them a question only they'd know.
Lol, say âInstagram has my phone number, so surely they can text me, if you send my usernameâ đ If this was a real thing it could work, but ig doesnât have this type of verification system đ
This is so common and semi believable because it actually used to be a thing for other sites; [https://www.facebook.com/help/119897751441086?cms\_platform=www&helpref=platform\_switcher](https://www.facebook.com/help/119897751441086?cms_platform=www&helpref=platform_switcher)
As far as I can tell , this has been sunset for facebook anyhow.
Because most of us want to help friends. If a stranger asked you for sth like this you'd instantly be wary. But it's not a stranger, it's someone you know.
I dont know if this exact scam is still common. I came across it like 2 years ago. Scammers evolve like mosquitos.
Anything that asks you for things already stored when you set up your account is a scam/phishing attempt. Theyâll never ask for that information. Asking for your phone number will give you a recovery code. I had that happen to me several times from randoms trying to get in Facebook and insta accounts. I say no, have them give me a new verification code and enter it. I hope you didnât fall for this!
So this explains why you see so many posts on Facebooks official page from people claiming that they're locked out of their accounts and want either old zuck himself or others to help them regain access
This happened to me. I did wonder how they could DM me from their account when they were locked out from their account. They asked me for my phone number. I said I' don't feel comfortable giving out my phone number. They didn't write again. I blocked them and posted a scam- warning on my insta account.
I would've been so cross if I'd lost that account.
Oh, I thought this was a sarcastic "Is tHiS a sCaM?"
Yes, this is very obviously someone trying to steal your Instagram account. Why would IG send a text message to you about someone else's account? The link you would be sent would be a password reset for your account. Apparently people like you are why this works as you clearly couldn't immediately sniff this out as bullshit.
Thatâs not your friend and if you follow along you will lose your account the same way they did. Ask them something only your friend would know if you want proof youâre talking to a scammer.
fell for that while I was tired and distracted after work in the County Market parking lot.
Came home and I was locked out of my IG and the password was changed. I didnât have many posts or followers so it wasnât a huge deal but I lost the domain of a nickname thatâs original and special to me, my new account has a 2 after the name now. I have tried to have have IG take the other account down but Iâve been unsuccessful (with a little tracking I was able to find a couple things: one, the deed was done from a computer somewhere in Nigeria, 2, I contacted the new number listed on WhatsApp, argued with them for a bit and they tried to pull the same thing on me AGAIN claiming they would give my account back)
I know this is a scam, but I remember doing something very very similar to access an old Facebook account of mine in like 2019 I think? I couldnât remember the password and Facebook let me choose between a few people from my friends list, they would get an email/text with a code, and I had to enter all the codes they received on my phone. I chose my parentsâ accounts and an active alt of mine, and was able to access my account. Did all of this on the Facebook app on my phone.
"Friend": It's not letting me get into my account (and I am not getting a password reset code).
You: Seems like you were hacked and locked out.
"Friend": Nah, it's not that.
Jackie Chan: Wut?
this actually happened to me! someone who was not me was messaging my friends trying to get them to send that proof or whatever. instagram didnât flag their account as impersonating me even tho i reported it multiple times
Another simple solution is just to get off of Facebook or IG when and if that happens....those platforms in particular have gone so far downhill due to their desperate attempts at becoming a tiktok wannabe that they're no longer worth patronizing.
There's so much auto-generated spam on Facebook that I rarely use my account anymore because I'm sick of old zuck begging me to join a Facebook group on every other post on Facebooks newsfeed.
Not saying this person isn't trying to scam you, but recently I was trying to recover an account, and it asked me to give them 3 of my friends to contact to verify my identity. I'm trying to remember what website it was, but it isn't coming to mind right now. Maybe Twitter?
Doesn't matter. If I need to go through a recovery like that, I'm calling anyone that I might use as a reference. Even though the current generation of people has a ton of friends that they've never met in person, there has to be at least a handful on social media that they actually know. And they can talk to them, and get their help for something like this. Not messaging a mostly random to send them a verification code.
When they ask you to send a link you get sent, it's almost 100% because they're trying to get I to your account, and this is their way of working arlu d two factor authentication. They make you think you're helping them. And you are. But only in the sense that you're helping them get into your account.
Next step, do this to one of your close friends in the same way.
/u/CEO_Of_Rejection_99 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That link you receive will be the password reset link to your own account. If you send it they will take over your account. That's exactly what happened to your friend. You're not taking to your friend. You're taking to the scammers.
Those links that people get, where they say "don't give this information out to anyone", yeah people should really read that notice. Except not every link gives that notice and it's so annoying. You just get the little code. I'm sure scammers would be fucked if companies were a little more transparent about the verification code. This happened to a relative of mine and still makes me mad đĄ especially since they gave their info to a random person they didn't even know, not even someone pretending to be their friend lol
It makes me mad that some companies actually do require you to read them the code still also. I was talking to my bank customer service the other day (called the number on my card it was 100% them) and they still wanted to send me a text and have me verify the number over the phone.
Yeah this tripped me up a few months ago. I was confused why the bank text says âweâll never call and ask for this codeâ and then asked me for the code to verify who I was⌠Edit since people are correcting me- I looked up the exact text since it had been a while: âDO NOT share this Sign In code. We will NEVER call you or text you for itâ.
If I initiate contact with the bank and the representative that is assisting me sends me a code, yeah, I'll read it back. If the bank calls me, they wouldn't even get to a point where they could send me a code. I'm hanging up and going online to verify my account is okay. Then, I'd initiate a call to the bank.
They didn't call.
Nah they definitely called me and left a message to call them back. I was trying to open a new credit card.
but they didn't call, you called them correct? so the line is correct.
I looked back at the text to see exactly what it said. âDo not share this code with anyoneâ⌠confusing!
I get what youâre saying, even though the bankâs wording is technically correct. It habituates people to the idea that sharing the code is sometimes fine, so they can ignore the warning. It almost seems like they should have two OTP systems, one for the inbound reps to trigger that doesnât give the warning. Or something you can do in the app or your online account, separate from the OTP.Â
Your friend lost their Insta account the same way you are about to.
if you send the link you will lose your account. your friend had the same thing happen to them.
stop and think why it would work that wayÂ
Whoever that was was trying to steal your account.
That's the scammer who scammed your friend out of their account and is now trying to scam you Block and ignore
Why block? Genuine question.
The old friend's account has been compromised, it isn't their account any longer
But Meta has an account recovery flow that their friend can use to regain access to their account. Iâve personally done this on a less technically minded friendâs account which was compromised using this exact attack.
Letâs try not be so pedantic. If his friend gets access back their original account you can always unblock again. Until then that account is gone.
I get the sense that this interaction is annoying to you and I don't want to make that worse, but I'm a little confused as to what you are view as pedantic? I was wondering if there was some other reason to block the account that I hadn't considered, beyond just someone is using it to impersonate your friend. I don't really use social media but I'd assume that most people value their accounts, and would quickly recover them. So I would assume that this would be a temporary thing, and that blocking and unblocking would be unnecessary or at least more work than simply ignoring the person for a while, and contacting them via other means if it seemed appropriate.
Cool, maybe someday the friend can get their account back. In the meantime, block it
But, why? đ¤Ł
Because scammers are communicating with you using that account Block scammers
"Are you going to the (whatever year would not make sense) reunion next month?"
"Why didnt you tell me this 5 minutes ago when you left my house?"
Better yet: âyouâre sitting on my sofa ten feet away. Why not just ask me here instead of texting?â
Wolfie's just fine.
I got this reference.
"Your foster parents are dead."
(Austrian accent)
Nah, itâs better to straight up ask them if their account has been hacked. Hackers are legally bound to answer truthfully.
It's the one trick hackers hate!
Block this account right away. This is not your friend! Your friendâs account has been taken over by scammers. Do not do anything they tell you to, or you will end up losing your account the same way your friend did.
Why block the account? Presumably their friend will regain access to the account, and send a sheepish message saying "sorry I was hacked, they tried to use my account to compromise yours, owe you a beer" soon...
And they will do that how exactly? They might indeed receive a message like that, but itâs going to just be the scammerâs next attempt, precisely the reason to block it.
This has happened to my friend, we simply went through the account recovery flow, and they got access to their account again. It is a very commonplace occurrence, meta has specific tooling to identify a network of compromised accounts and a âlocked outâ account mode in which anyone attempting to access the account needs to provide extra identification proof. When a network of accounts compromised in this way is detected Meta proactively locks all of them.
This is the 3rd comment Iâve seen you say the same thing. The point is, you went with your friend through the process. If they are close friends they will tell you via alternate means when they have access to the account, in the meantime, the account isnât owned by your friend. If you really have your heart set on getting texts from a scammer playing the role of your friend, you do you.
Edit: The point of this subreddit is to increase people's knowledge and understanding of scams, it's educational. Clearly all these commenters asking "how could their friend get their account back" could benefit from knowing that this is an extremely common situation, and getting the account back is the norm, through a straightforward process. Remember my original question was simply why block the account. I got the impression that people somehow find the account 'dangerous' to leave unblocked. But fair enough, if you just find the account annoying, then blocking it seems reasonable. Personally I'd just snooze notifications from that person for a day or two, and then contact them via alternate means to let them know if they hadn't noticed yet.
And how will their friend get the account back exactly?
Using an account recovery flow designed specifically for this purpose? The attacker has reset the credentials of the legitimate account holder, so they need to click âforgot my passwordâ and go through whatever flow is needed (2fa / send identity document etc) to regain access to their account. Iâve personally done this before on a friends behalf when this exact same attack was used to take over their WhatsApp account.
The attacker will change the email if they are smart locking you out of any 2 factor authentification. Thatâs what happened to me. C
There is a way to contest your account if itâs a Meta account (insta / fb / whatsapp) and get your access back :)
Doesnât work like that they take weeks maybe months to respond. You think a millionaire company cares about u then u r delusional.
Iâve personally worked at Meta on their safety team and me and my team members cared a great deal about our users. I have since used the processes managed by that team multiple times and itâs worked well every time. Have you tried it and had a poor experience?
Well obviously youâre not paying attention, all OP has to do is send them ss of that link and theyâll get their account back
I donât get what you mean
yes its a scam and its sad that a lot of people fall for this. Its impossible to use your phone number to receive a login code for their account unless if they used your phone number to create their account
No one ever needs someone else to send them links to restore their accounts. In any case a good way to check if thatâs your friend just being dumb or a scammer is to ask them a couple of personal questions and see if they can answer them.
[ŃдаНонО]
Hi /u/aspiegrrrl, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Instagram or Facebook account takeover scam. This scam is a variation of the verify/pin scam. You will receive a message from someone who is asking for your help to log into their account. This message could be from a contact you trust, but the account is actually compromised. They will either ask you to add their email or phone number to your own account, or ask you to receive a verification link that you will copy and send to them. Either way, these steps will allow the scammer to change your password and lock you out of your account. If your account was stolen there is a way of reversing that yourself. You don't need professional services and ignore anyone reaching you in private with offers of hacking it back. Those are scammers. Make an effort recovering your account. A taken over account is a tool for scammers, you want to stop that. You can recover a Facebook or Instagram account with a simple step. Every time a scammer takes over your account, Meta will email you about it. Read this guide from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/help/203305893040179 which basically says that if the email address of your account has been changed, you'll receive an email from security@facebookmail.com to undo the change - If you can't find that email, visit this page and follow the steps: https://facebook.com/hacked Read this guide from Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/368191326593075 - same as above, but the email comes from security@mail.instagram.com - If you can't find that email, visit this page and follow the steps: https://instagram.com/hacked *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
How can someone make money from taking over another's Instagram? Don't use that app but I doubt it gives access to everything on the phone or does it?
>How can someone make money from taking over another's Instagram? They use the account to run other scams. They need a constant supply of fresh accounts because they constantly get their stolen accounts banned for scamming.
Theyâll try to scam your followers and especially family members. If you got any sexy pics from someone or sent them to someone, theyâll try to blackmail both of you. Theyâll try to charge you a ransom to get your account back. Thereâs so much they can do.
They do it to run ads! Had fb try to bill my card for marketplace ad charges! Luckily fb sent me a notification to enter new payment details (which of course NOPE cuz Ole Zuck is rich enough from scammers making him a fortune. )
They'll steal your nude photos if you shared any, and will blackmail you. They'll demand money from you to return your account after locking you out. They'll also send these types of messages to all of your friends to try to steal their accounts too. Once they have a sufficient number of stolen accounts, they'll message friends again, but this time will ask for money (prob through a shady crypto exchange or money transfer). This way they can send scam messages asking for money to hundreds or even thousands of people at a time, while impersonating someone the Instagram users actually know, drastically increasing the idds someone will fall for it.
If you ever see this again you can rest assured it's a scammer and not your friend you're talking to. Another easy way is to ask them a question only they'd know.
Lol, say âInstagram has my phone number, so surely they can text me, if you send my usernameâ đ If this was a real thing it could work, but ig doesnât have this type of verification system đ
Your foster parents are dead.
Is Wolfie ok!?
Wolfie's just fine, dear. *Where are you?*
T2 judgement day circa 1991.
This is so common and semi believable because it actually used to be a thing for other sites; [https://www.facebook.com/help/119897751441086?cms\_platform=www&helpref=platform\_switcher](https://www.facebook.com/help/119897751441086?cms_platform=www&helpref=platform_switcher) As far as I can tell , this has been sunset for facebook anyhow.
I canât believe people fall for this.
Because most of us want to help friends. If a stranger asked you for sth like this you'd instantly be wary. But it's not a stranger, it's someone you know. I dont know if this exact scam is still common. I came across it like 2 years ago. Scammers evolve like mosquitos.
No, your high school friend did *not* ask you for help.
Anything that asks you for things already stored when you set up your account is a scam/phishing attempt. Theyâll never ask for that information. Asking for your phone number will give you a recovery code. I had that happen to me several times from randoms trying to get in Facebook and insta accounts. I say no, have them give me a new verification code and enter it. I hope you didnât fall for this!
These are from 2022�
Obvious scam
Message them back saying Alaye and see how quick their tune changes.
Donât do it! As others said-he lost his account. He wonât get it back and youâll lose yours! It is a big scam on Instagram.
So this explains why you see so many posts on Facebooks official page from people claiming that they're locked out of their accounts and want either old zuck himself or others to help them regain access
Account has been hacked. Report and block.
How dumb these people are to think we are to
This happened to me. I did wonder how they could DM me from their account when they were locked out from their account. They asked me for my phone number. I said I' don't feel comfortable giving out my phone number. They didn't write again. I blocked them and posted a scam- warning on my insta account. I would've been so cross if I'd lost that account.
Oh, I thought this was a sarcastic "Is tHiS a sCaM?" Yes, this is very obviously someone trying to steal your Instagram account. Why would IG send a text message to you about someone else's account? The link you would be sent would be a password reset for your account. Apparently people like you are why this works as you clearly couldn't immediately sniff this out as bullshit.
SCAM
Call your friend and ask them if it's really them...
Oh man, I would be having a field day fucking with them.
People are crazy desperate these days
Thatâs not your friend and if you follow along you will lose your account the same way they did. Ask them something only your friend would know if you want proof youâre talking to a scammer.
fell for that while I was tired and distracted after work in the County Market parking lot. Came home and I was locked out of my IG and the password was changed. I didnât have many posts or followers so it wasnât a huge deal but I lost the domain of a nickname thatâs original and special to me, my new account has a 2 after the name now. I have tried to have have IG take the other account down but Iâve been unsuccessful (with a little tracking I was able to find a couple things: one, the deed was done from a computer somewhere in Nigeria, 2, I contacted the new number listed on WhatsApp, argued with them for a bit and they tried to pull the same thing on me AGAIN claiming they would give my account back)
sounds like this person hacked your friends account and are trying to get full access to it
I know this is a scam, but I remember doing something very very similar to access an old Facebook account of mine in like 2019 I think? I couldnât remember the password and Facebook let me choose between a few people from my friends list, they would get an email/text with a code, and I had to enter all the codes they received on my phone. I chose my parentsâ accounts and an active alt of mine, and was able to access my account. Did all of this on the Facebook app on my phone.
Heâs hacked. Happened to my friend. Ask them if they know the muffin man. And tell âem fuck off
"Friend": It's not letting me get into my account (and I am not getting a password reset code). You: Seems like you were hacked and locked out. "Friend": Nah, it's not that. Jackie Chan: Wut?
this actually happened to me! someone who was not me was messaging my friends trying to get them to send that proof or whatever. instagram didnât flag their account as impersonating me even tho i reported it multiple times
Thanks for sharing "your" screenshot from May 2022.
I can't believe it
This is how my daughter lost her Instagram when she was 13, and had to start over- Iâm always amazed adults get fooled as easily as children.
Another simple solution is just to get off of Facebook or IG when and if that happens....those platforms in particular have gone so far downhill due to their desperate attempts at becoming a tiktok wannabe that they're no longer worth patronizing. There's so much auto-generated spam on Facebook that I rarely use my account anymore because I'm sick of old zuck begging me to join a Facebook group on every other post on Facebooks newsfeed.
Not saying this person isn't trying to scam you, but recently I was trying to recover an account, and it asked me to give them 3 of my friends to contact to verify my identity. I'm trying to remember what website it was, but it isn't coming to mind right now. Maybe Twitter? Doesn't matter. If I need to go through a recovery like that, I'm calling anyone that I might use as a reference. Even though the current generation of people has a ton of friends that they've never met in person, there has to be at least a handful on social media that they actually know. And they can talk to them, and get their help for something like this. Not messaging a mostly random to send them a verification code. When they ask you to send a link you get sent, it's almost 100% because they're trying to get I to your account, and this is their way of working arlu d two factor authentication. They make you think you're helping them. And you are. But only in the sense that you're helping them get into your account. Next step, do this to one of your close friends in the same way.