A STRANGER created several fake Instagram accounts using my face and it proved difficult to get rid of them.
I first noticed this was happening when I checked to see who had viewed my Instagram Stories and saw my own face staring back.
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The profile picture was me, the bio was exactly the same but the username said I was someone called April Hamilton.
April appeared to be a far more successful journalist than me with over eight times as any followers as my real account.
This seemingly popular bogus account was private, but it had 91 posts – presumably of my face.
I was tempted to follow back and investigate it further but instead, I blocked and reported the account as Instagram advises.
Friends and family members did the same and I thought the problem would be solved.
That was until an automated message from Instagram several days later told me the scam account was not at fault.
The message said the account was not removed because it didn’t violate the rules.
It wasn’t until I reached out to Instagram identifying myself as a journalist doing a story on my own scam account that it was swiftly deleted.
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Instagram removes millions of accounts every day and I was directed to the Community Guidelines, which state that impersonation accounts are not allowed on the platform.
THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN
I don’t check who views my Instagram Stories all the time, but about a week later I decided to have a look.
My face popped up again. Only this time, it was a different picture and an account with the username @charlotte_hills8 and a different name on the bio.
Naively, I’d kept my Instagram profile public. I use it for work and had thought blocking the first account would be enough.
However, my impersonator just wasn’t willing to give up.
This new scam account was public and had endless photos of me stolen from my actual profile.
All the posts had likes and comments but they seemed to be from bots.
Two posts at the very end were selfies of a middle-aged man I had never met.
I saw the account had posted its own Instagram Stories and clicked on them to find they were exact copies of what I had just posted to my own account.
The impersonator knew the exact restaurant I had been in 25 minutes before and had even put the location on their fake account’s Story.
Again, I blocked and reported them, got friends to do the same, and finally made my account private.
I heard nothing for days until I received the same automated message saying the account would not be deleted.
WHAT DID THEY WANT?
After making my account private, I started to get friend requests from women who I didn’t know.
They also had thousands of followers and carefully curated Instagram feeds.
However, most of their followers and comments seemed to come from fake accounts.
They looked just like the fake accounts that had been made with my photos.
I declined all the requests, hoping the impersonator would soon give up without access to my content.
That was until a photographer messaged me and highlighted a third account with the username @charlotte_trell8.
They told me this account had reached out to them and asked to buy their photos as a journalist.
Something about the offer had seemed suspicious and the photographer had done their research and found my verified page.
I found the account, blocked it, and reported it to Instagram again.
It soon disappeared, but I have no way of knowing whether there are other accounts out there using my pictures and trying to scam others.
A similar thing happened to Ray Parisi, a senior executive producer at CNBC.
He was alerted to an Instagram account using his pictures to scam people into investing in a bogus crypto scheme.
Initially, Instagram did not remove the account until he sent the company a picture of him holding his ID.
Impersonation scams can also involve cybercriminals using stolen photos to catfish victims into fake relationships and then take their money.
HOW TO STAY SAFE
The best thing you can do to keep yourself safe from strangers on Instagram is to set your account to private.
If you can’t do this for work reasons or simply don’t want to, then there are other safety measures you can take.
Make sure to block and report all scammers to Instagram.
If you can, have friends report the bogus accounts as well.
Make sure you warn all friends and family members about the fake account in case it reaches out to them and pretends to be you.
Be wary about the kinds of things you post online, including revealing your location, where you live, and even your date of birth.
The less a scammer can find out about you the better and that way you’re harder to impersonate.
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
