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SINGAPORE: More than 110 people have reported being the target of Instagram account takeover scams this year.
In a press release on Monday evening, police warned that two different types of scams have tricked victims into allowing thieves to hijack their Instagram accounts.
The first difference focuses on business accounts on Instagram, and scammers pretending to be potential customers.
After communicating with the account holders through direct messaging, the scammers said they wanted to verify the owner’s identity before paying.
They tell victims that they will receive a message with a link from Instagram to confirm this, and ask them to take a photo of the message sent to them.
Fraudsters send a password reset for a business account, prompting Instagram to automatically send victims a genuine password reset message.
Anyone who takes a screenshot of this message will be sent to hackers and their accounts will be found to have been hacked.
In the second phase, unsuspecting victims receive direct messages from unknown Instagram accounts asking them to enter fake lucky draws and have a chance to win money.
Victims are told to change their Instagram login information to gain access, and to provide their one-time password (OTP) to senders to verify their identity.
Those who did this found their accounts hacked and stolen.
Some of the hijacked accounts were later used by scammers to post investment-related scams, and to approach followers of original users to participate in fake investments.
The public is advised to be wary of unknown accounts contacting them on social media and never share their personal information, account identification link or OTP, even to friends and family.
Instagram users are advised to set up two-factor authentication for their accounts. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network
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