Stealing High-Value Instagram Accounts
Joseph Cox (tweet):
Usually when you think of someone taking over an Instagram account, you probably imagine a hacker breaking in with an unearthed password, or tricking the victim into giving up their credentials. But Instagram scammers have another, sometimes more effective method too: just asking Instagram to hand over the account.
Scammers do this by creating fake companies and trademarks to convince Instagram they should be the legitimate owner of a username in question, with fraudsters using “trademarking,” as the technique is known, to get ahold of sought-after, valuable handles, according to posts and evidence of the process in action obtained by Motherboard. The scammers can then keep these handles as digital mementos, brag about their acquisition, or resell them at a profit in a thriving underground community.
Update (2019-02-15): Isaiah Carew:
i’ve had my instagram account “isaiah” stolen 3 times. they used “sim flipping”, social engineering, and a loophole in 2-factor.
