Whether you have a few hundred or thousands of followers, getting your Instagram account hacked is horrible.
You feel panicked, upset, and often left feeling helpless wondering what you’re supposed to do next.
It doesn’t make the situation better that the Instagram Help System is not actually designed to help much in these situations.
After my account got hacked I spent hours reading through every Help Page that I could find just to feel like I was stuck in an endless loop of useless information.
After going through the process myself and trying just about anything to recover my hacked account, I have highlighted all the steps you can take to get your hacked Instagram account back and some tips on what you can do to prevent hacks from happening to you in the future:
How To Recover A Hacked Instagram Account:
- Reverse The Hack Through Email
- Save Your Username
- Report The Hack To Instagram
- Find A Friend Who Works at Instagram Or Facebook
- Report The Hack Through Facebook Ads Chat
How To Prevent A Hack From Happening:
- Set Up Two-Factor Authentication
- Investigate Emailed Links
- Only Log In From The Instagram App
- Don’t Share Your Login With Third Parties
How I Got Hacked
I will never forget that night. I was about to head out to dinner with friends when I got a notification on my phone for an incoming email. Not thinking much of it, I opened the email to read this:
At first, I thought it was spam or some joke. Who and why would someone try to hack my account? But sure enough, as soon as I opened the Instagram app and tried to log in, I got an error message.
I immediately tried to look up my account @vagablonde_laura through my husband’s page and it just simply wasn’t there anymore. The realization started fully setting in – my account really has been hacked.
I was puzzled about how that had happened but then I remembered that earlier that day I had received an email from a swimsuit company saying that they wanted to work with me. It wasn’t anything unusual. I had around 140K followers at the time and I would often receive similar emails from brands pitching me offers.
The company had emailed me with their offer and included a link to their Instagram page for me to check them out. It’s pretty standard, most of the time I want to learn as much as I can about the company before accepting or declining their offer. But little did I know at the time that all of this was an elaborate scheme by the hackers posing as a clothing brand.
When I clicked on their emailed link, instead of sending me to their Instagram page they led me to a false Instagram login page where they collected my login info including my username and password.
Soon after clicking on this link, I started getting emails from the hackers threatening to delete my account.
I decided not to engage with the hackers because by paying them money I would just be enabling them to continue their horrible hacking scheme and keep doing this to other people.
Also, paying them wouldn’t guarantee that my account would be returned to me. In many cases even when people pay the hackers, their accounts are still deleted.
While contemplating what to do next, my friend sent me a screenshot of my page. She was still showing my account in her cache that hadn’t fully cleared yet, but my account along with all of my photos was already deleted by the hackers.
Yet they still kept emailing me pretending as if they hadn’t…
The threatening emails continued for days, although it was clearly evident that my account was deleted long before.
There was nothing I could do but stare at my phone in disbelief. 3 years of photography work, 140,000 followers, and hundreds of images just gone and erased from Instagram’s existence like nothing.
Most Instagram hacker cases are not this extreme. In many cases, the hackers just lock people out, change the username and maybe post some inappropriate material. But in either case, getting your Instagram account hacked is a stressful and frustrating situation.
For a while, I felt embarrassed and almost ashamed that I got hacked. But by sharing this I hope I can shed some light on this horrible Instagram hacking scheme and hopefully help stop hacks like this from happening to someone else in the future.
I will cover in more detail how to prevent yourself from getting hacked later in this post, but as I’m sure most of you are here looking for tips on how to get your hacked Instagram account back so I’ll cover that next.
How To Recover A Hacked Instagram Account
If your Instagram account was hacked and deleted, the faster you act, the more likely you will be able to recover your account. As I later found out, all deleted data gets erased from the Instagram system after two weeks and can’t be recovered after.
Here’s what you should do right after your Instagram account is hacked.
Reverse The Hack Through Email
When there is any major change done to your Instagram account, an automatic email should be sent to your email address on file. Someone getting into your account from a new device and changing your info under Settings should trigger this type of email.
Right after you get hacked the first thing you should do is go to that email and see if there is an option to “Change Your Password” or “Revert This Change”. If the hacker was slow in changing your Login information, you may be able to gain back access or at least lock the hacker out by clicking this button.
In my case, the hacker already changed my password, username, and email on file so I was not able to lock them out. They had completely taken over my account and changed all of my information by the time I saw that email but it’s worth it to give it a try
I’ve heard of people locking out the hackers this way to prevent them from further tampering with their accounts.
Save Your Username
If Instagram is a big part of your business, you may have spent years building a brand around your username. If the hackers changed your username after getting into your account, it means that your username is up for grabs by anyone.
If you care to save that username before someone else takes it, just simply create a new account with that name. Once you recover your old account, you can switch the username back on it.
Report The Hack To Instagram
The official way to report a hack to Instagram is through their Request Support system found under the Log In screen.
It’s a short form that can be filled out within a few minutes asking a few basic questions like the email that you used to create your account, contact info, the issue, etc.
At first, I had some difficulty finding this support request form since it’s not super easily accessible. Which sort of baffles me because when you’re hacked and locked out of your account in a panic mode, shouldn’t the reporting process be made simple and easy??
To find this form log out of all Instagram accounts that you are currently using. In the Login screen click on “Forgot password?”
In the next screen type in the username of the account that was hacked. Then click “Need more help?” and a form called “Request Support” should pop up.
Note: I noticed that if I don’t type in the username and instead try to use my email or phone number before clicking on “Need more help?”, I get sent to a help page instead of the form.
Once you get to the “Request Support” form, fill out all the asked questions and click “Request Support” all the way at the bottom. This should kick off a general request to Instagram to let them know that your account was hacked.
Unfortunately, the support request form doesn’t seem to be an option for Android users. No matter what I tried on my husband’s Android phone, it kept leading me to the help page and never to the report itself.
If you have an Android phone, you might need to borrow an iPhone from a family member or a friend to submit the Request Support form to Instagram.
If any Android users have been able to access the Request Support form under the Login screen, let us know otherwise in the comments below!
Once you submit the Request Support form, within a few hours you should receive an email from Instagram with some follow-up questions. If you don’t receive this email, try submitting the Request Support form again using a different email address until you get this response.
At
Instagram claims that it’s to help them filter through all the false reports that get submitted to Instagram. Unfortunately, this makes the process also harder and longer for all the people that are genuinely trying to report their hacked Instagram accounts.
To pass the computers scanning your responses keep your answers concise and to the point. If you pass, you will receive another email asking for a photo of yourself holding up a unique code and your Instagram handle name.
Once you send that in, Instagram claims that a real person reviews this image and compares it to the images on your account. If the image you submitted matches the images on your account and the Instagram team can verify that it’s really you, soon after you should get an email from Instagram with access to your account.
Most Instagram account owners are able to get their hacked accounts back through this reporting system within a few hours up to a few days.
Unfortunately, it seems that if your account was deleted, the computer system might have some difficulty in locating your account. I tried submitting multiple Request Support forms, but I kept getting these frustrating dead-end emails while some of my friends got their accounts back through this reporting system within a day or two.
It was time for me to get a bit more creative.
Find A Friend Who Works At Instagram Or Facebook
As most people may already know, Instagram and Facebook are owned by the same company. In this case, it can be a big advantage because if you find someone who works at either company, they can submit an internal request for someone to review your case.
Instagram and Facebook have their own internal help reporting systems for when things go wrong. If you know a friend or acquaintance who works at either company, it can really speed things up in the recovery process.
Don’t be shy about sharing your unfortunate situation on your other social media channels. You may get one of those lucky responses “I may know a guy…” or “my friend of a friend works there”.
Oddly though, it does matter how good of
If a friend of yours does submit an internal request to review your case, make sure to follow up on it quite frequently. Even in their internal system things sometimes get lost purely of the sheer volume of help requests that get submitted to Instagram and Facebook daily.
As I mentioned earlier, you only have two weeks to recover your hacked and deleted Instagram account, so it’s up to you to follow up on it daily.
Report The Hack Through Facebook Ads Chat
For business account owners one of the quickest ways to get in touch with a REAL PERSON (yes people – real breathing, walking, and taking human beings) is through the Facebook Ads Chat option.
Unfortunately, if you don’t have a business account, you won’t have the option to chat with the Facebook Ads support team so it might be worth it to create one.
Creating a business page won’t affect how your current friends and family see your personal account. Doing this will just create a new business page that will be linked to your personal account.
Once you create a business page, you will have access to the Facebook Ads Manager. But before you are able to chat with a live representative, you will need to spend at least $1 on Facebook Ads. The
I personally didn’t know this yet I kept hearing of this magical Facebook Ads chat box where business page owners could talk to a live representative instead of getting the generic help page answers. I couldn’t find this chat box in my Ads Manager until one day I spent some money on an ads campaign as a test and a few days later there it was, the mysterious chat box.
To access this chat box go to your Facebook business page and click on Help in the top right-hand corner, then select “Advertiser Support”.
This will get you to the Facebook Business Resources page. On this page scroll down until you see a box saying “Still Need Help? Find Answers Or Contact Support”. Click on “Get Started”.
Next will need to click through a few prompt screens. In the first one, I selected “Policy & Account Security”. I figured since my account was hacked, this option would apply the most.
Because the hackers deleted my account,
Next click on the window “Chat With A Representative“. The Facebook representatives are not available during the weekends and outside of working hours so make sure to set aside an hour to chat with the support reps during working hours Monday to Friday.
Fill out all the requested information and click on “Start Chat“. Within a few minutes, you should be connected to a live representative.
Once you are connected you can tell the representative that your account was hacked and that you need help to recover it. They will ask a few follow-up questions like what happened, your username, the email used to create your account, etc.
Before you get on the chat I highly recommend gathering some backup to provide to the chat representative like screenshots of the hacker emails and any proof of your account ownership.
If you have done paid ads in the past, all of your Instagram info might already be connected to the Facebook Ads Manager. I had never paid for ads before so there was no trace of my account existence and I had to show proof that I was the owner of it.
The Facebook Ads support tech won’t be able to restore your account on the spot but they should be able to submit all of this information to their internal team to investigate. I have heard of friends getting their accounts back within 24 hours after reporting it as hacked through the Facebook Ads Chat system.
How To Prevent A Hack From Happening
Set Up Two-Factor Authentication
One of the most secure ways to prevent anyone from accessing your Instagram account is to have Two-Factor Authentication, or shortly 2FA, set up.
What the heck is 2FA, you may wonder? I wasn’t sure of myself until my account got hacked and everyone, like EVERYONE told me I should have it set up.
Two Factor Authentication means linking your phone number to your Instagram page. Every time your account gets accessed from a new device (phone, laptop, etc), a text notification will be sent to your phone with an access code. This code will need to be entered into the Instagram login screen in order to access your account.
In most cases, the hackers won’t have access to your phone and will be using some sort of software to breach your account. If you have Two-Factor Authentication set up, the hackers will be blocked from getting into your account and you will be sent a notification alerting you of the hack. This way not only the system prevent the hackers from getting into your account, but you will also be notified of the intrusion.
If you don’t have a 2FA set up already, please do yourself a huge favor and take two seconds to do this. Just go to Instagram Settings, then select “Two-Factor Authentication”.
Under Text Message options select “On”.
Instagram will also provide you with a set of codes that you can use for cases when you don’t have your phone on you to receive the code via text message. Make sure to write these codes somewhere safe in case you need to access your account from a new device or if your phone is lost or stolen.
Investigate Emailed Links
Although it might seem so simple and preventable, it’s the one thing that got my account hacked – clicking on a bad link.
To be honest, I didn’t even know that hacking Instagram pages through bad links was a “thing” until it happened to me. As I’ve learned now, this has been happening for quite some time now but nobody is really talking about it. Maybe it’s the embarrassment – I sure was ashamed that someone hacked me.
But staying quiet and ignoring this issue won’t help it go away. So here I am, sharing the
Most spams can be pretty easily detectable. I’m sure most of us have gotten some odd email from a Nigerian prince offering us big sums of money. But in this case, the hackers sent me a tailored email that looked so normal that it didn’t even cross my mind that it could be a hack.
The email simply pitched a potential collaboration with a clothing company and included a link that seemed to lead to their Instagram page. Little did I know that the link was a Bitly link renamed to look like Instagram and led me to a false Instagram Log In where they collected my login information.
One way to check for this is to right-click on the link, select “Open link in new tab” and paste it into a blank Word Document page. If the link leads somewhere else instead of Instagram, it will show that here. If it shows the link as a Bit.ly link, that means it’s a BIG RED FLAG, and do not click on it.
Next time you see someone urging you to “Check out their page”, think twice before clicking on the link that they sent you.
Only Log In From The Instagram App
Another way to avoid getting hacked is to never access Instagram except for the app itself. If someone sends you a link to their page, instead of clicking on that link ask for their username and check it out through the app itself.
If you do click on a link that was emailed to you and for some odd reason it asks you to enter your login info, DON’T. If you are already logged into Instagram from the app on your phone, you shouldn’t have to log in again. This is when hackers collect your info to access your account.
Don’t Share Your Login With Third Parties
If you use any apps to edit photos or to analyze data, they might ask for your Login information to connect your account. Before you do so, make sure to check out how legit these apps really seem.
As a business account, I was also often asked to share my Login info with companies and Infuencer platforms that I worked with. Just be cautious of any outside parties that you share your info with. You wouldn’t share your social security number with just anyone so treat your login information with the same care.
Getting your account hacked sucks. But what makes it even worse is the lack of information available on what to actually do when it does happen.
Most of the information mentioned in this article was something I learned by going through the process myself and suggestions from my friends that had their accounts hacked and were able to recover them.
By the time I found out about the Facebook Ads Chat option, a few weeks already had gone by. The representative that I talked to through the chat put in a request to get my case looked at but a few days later informed me that all of my account information had been already been wiped out of the Instagram data system.
They were eager to help me but there was nothing they could do because too much time had passed…
I hope that Instagram hacks stop but I also realize that is not the reality. I do hope that this guide can shed some light on real steps that you can take to help you recover your account once it does happen.
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Excellent. Thanks
I had just given up on recovering my personal Instagram when I stumbled upon this post. Thank you so much! I was able to restore my account.
Glad we could help!
Laura & Joel
Hi Laura,
I came through your post and I could see myself in your place. I got a message from hacker pretending to be an Instagram support team person that my account violated Instagram rules and asked me to give a reason via a link he sent. I trusted and logged in using that link. Within few minutes he changed all my username, password ,email and phone number. I was asked to pay money and after lots of try I left with no other option. That business account is my life and it had 28k followers. It took 3 years for me to build that account. I was successfully running up my business after lot of failures and mental stress. So I decided to pay him and get the account back. But he told he couldn’t open the account even after I paid him. He apologized for this and returned me half of the money. He also provided me the username and password he changed. I appealed several times explaining the issue till yesterday and have submitted the proof. But today I couldn’t appeal using that username. It shows username isn’t valid. Now I get to see a different username kind of this( __deleted __bhiebeagce..) in my chat DM . Could you pls help me out with this issue. I’m really frustrated. I cant think of my life without this account.
Hey Nivetha,
Was your Instagram business account linked to Facebook ads? If so, you can try to get in touch with a live person through Facebook ads chat and see if they can help recover your IG business account.
If that doesn’t work, you can also try to reach out to @juanr325 on Instagram. He has helped recover hacked business accounts for a couple of people that I know. I believe he works with Instagram directly to help people recover their lost accounts. You can reach out to him on IG or send him a text – his Whatsapp number is listed in his IG profile. He usually responds pretty quickly.
Hope this helps! Good luck.
Laura
Facebook live chat option is now disabled Laura. I have contacted @juanr325. Waiting for his reply! Thanks for your response:)
Hi! Can you tell me if Juan worked? He asked for me to take a picture with my ID I’m scared and my IG got hacked. I have a small business and I’m just so scared
Hi,
I tried following your steps but it just takes me to the help center instead of the support request form. I’m using an iPhone too and I typed in my username. What can I do? Please help!
I need help. My Instagram account was hacked on Tuesday morning by a link I accidentally pressed and I’m desparately trying to get it back. I don’t have a business Facebook page.
Oh my gosh, that gives me hope! This just happened to me and I’m working on trying to find a solution! 🙁
how did you get through the auto-emails that say the account has been permanently deleted and nothing can be done?
You can keep trying using different email addresses or even create a new email that is not associated with any of your social media accounts. If that doesn’t work you can also contact @juanr325 on Instagram and he can help you recover your account and walk you through the process, but he does charge a fee for his help.
Good luck!
Laura
Hi Laura, I tried looking. @juanr325 on Instagram & it looks like his profile no longer exists. You see my Instagram got hacked and I was fast enough with the email. They changed all the information affiliated with the account and after two fact Authenticator. Ive followed you steps but when I go to input my username and click “need more help” it goes to the faq help center. I have yet to the official page where I can submit a support ticket. I have read this blog and twice & followed the steps diligently I think instantly has changed since you posted this. Can you please please help me .
I was not fast enough in the email I mean *
Thank you for this article!! Dee, I want to make a shout out to everyone of you on Instagram, just was soon as I win my account back from the cyber thief.
I cannot seem to get to the Request Support purple page on the IOS app or web. Shed any light on this?
Hey Niahm,
Here is what I did:
-I logged out of all of my accounts
-then I clicked on “Log Into Another Account”
-then I clicked on “Forgot Password?”
-then I clicked on “Need more help?”
-then I selected “I can’t access this email or phone number” and the Request Support page popped up.
Hope this helps!
Laura
Hi Laura,
I am having a problem with getting to the purple support request page also.
I followed all your steps up until “I can’t access this email or phone number”. Where do you see this option? Thank you for your help!
Hey Kristy,
It’s all the way at the bottom. Do you see a big blue button that says “Send Security Code”? Underneath that, it should say in small writing “I can’t access this email or phone number”. Click on that and then a purple support page should pop up where you can fill out the info & check “My account was hacked” option and “Request Support”.
Laura
I noticed that sometimes it takes me to the purple Request Support page from “Trouble logging in?” screen and sometimes it doesn’t. If you’re in the “Trouble logging in?” screen, try re-entering your user name or click on the “Phone” tab and then click on “Need more help?” and see if that helps. I wish they didn’t make it so tricky and complicated!
Does anyone have a timeline for getting one of the auto emails? I’ve reported my account about..3-5 times in the past two days with two different emails and have not received an auto email to either. Is that too often?
I’m also using this link to report (https://help.instagram.com/contact/272476913194545), I’m not sure if that might be an issue? But I’m also not able to get to the purple screen you show in the article.
I would just try to report it any way you find it possible.
It seems that quite a few people are having trouble accessing the purple Request Support page. Have you tried to click on “Forgot Password?” under the Log In screen? This will take you to the “Trouble Logging In?” screen where you can click on ‘Need more help?” and then on “I can’t access this email or phone number”. This should lead to the purple Request Support page.
If it doesn’t, try re-entering your Username under the “Trouble Logging In?” screen or go to the Phone tab and then click on “Need more help?”. That seems to work for me.
Laura
I am, whenever I get to “Need more help”, it leads me to the Help Center, which starts sending me in circles. I never have an option to select “I can’t access this email or phone number” and the “Trouble Logging In” in the Help Center also leads me in circles. I’ll keep trying though, this article really gives me hope.
Whenever you get to the “Trouble logging in?” screen, try re-entering your Username or click on the Phone tab before selecting “Need more help?”. That seems to work for me.
Laura
You should get an auto email within a few hours. Try creating a brand new email that’s not associated with any social media accounts and see if that helps.
Laura
Hi Laura,
I’ve recently had my business account hacked and taken over yesterday. I have tried so hard to contact IG and FB. I sent you a DM via IG from panasexiii_backup. If you can please take time to reply I will greatly appreciate it.
Hi Myori,
I hope my reply helped you answer some questions. Good luck!
Hi, just wondering how long it took between buying an ad and then being able to click on the “chat with a representative”? I’m trying this business page Facebook method, as nothing else I’ve tried has worked so far.
Hey Rose,
It took about 24 hours before I saw the “chat” box appear.
Laura
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the reply. Can I ask you a few more questions about your ads and your page? The “live chat” option does not appear for me, even though I created a business page and purchased an ad, and I’m trying to figure out why some people have this “get more help” option and some don’t.
How many ads did you have? And about how much money did you spend on them? Did your business page have any likes? Did you just start your business page and then the help option appeared 24 hours later? Or had your business page been active longer?
Thanks
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the info. The “chat with a live representative” option is still not showing up for me, and I want to try and figure out why it shows up for some people but not others. How many ads did you run? About how much money did you spend on your ads? Does your business page have any likes? Also, how long had your business page been created before you started an ad?
Rose
Hey,
I just ran one ad for $1 before the chat option appeared a day later. I had both Facebook and Instagram business pages for a while before my Instagram account was hacked and both had likes and followers.
Laura
When I try to login it’s shows me a security code to a different email which I have no idea what it is , and when I try to change my password it sends it to the right email .. any solution ?
Hey, it’s possible that the hackers changed the email address on your IG account so all future emails from Instagram get sent to them instead of you. That’s what happened to my account. Are you still able to change the password and log into your account? If so, I would go through the settings and remove the hacker’s email address if it’s showing up in the settings.
Laura
Hi Laura. What happened to me is that the hacker changed the account name, the email, the password and the mobile phone. When I try to do what you said, I harrive to the point where I have to put my account and mobile phone and click on send. When I do it, it says this account doesn’t existe neither the number! I think because the hacker has changed everything. Can you help me??
Thank you
Pedro
Hi Pedro! Does this happen when you try to submit the purple “Request Support” form? The hacker had changed all of my info as well. Make sure to use a contact email address that’s not associated with any social media accounts so Instagram can contact you with updates.
Hi! My account was hacked today and a friend gave me this link. I was luckily able to recover my account, but the hacker deleted all of my content. Is there any way you know that I can get my deleted posts back onto my page? Thank you for your help!
Hey! So sorry to hear that! Have you checked the Archives folder? Maybe they Archived everything instead of deleting it.
I’ve heard that Instagram keeps backup of everything up to two weeks but the hardest part is just getting in touch with them for help. You can try to submit the Request Support form and in details section let then know that your images were deleted and maybe they can bring them back.
Laura
Hi, how did you recover it? I need to recover an account as well, which is really important 🙂
Hi Laura.
The account of a friend was hacked, the password/email got changed, but all followers/username/posted pictures still exist!
The problem is that we can’t get to the Request Support page, it redirects us to the help center.. Can you still get to the Request Support page?
I have to point out that we both are using Androids, but if it’s really working on an iPhone, I’d buy a second hand iPhone just to recover her account 🙂
Best regards,
Emre
Hey Emre,
I’m glad that your followers and pictures are still there! That means you have a much better chance of recovering it than if the entire account was deleted.
Every time I tried to report my hacked account through Android, it never worked. I was able to do it on my iPhone but lately, I’ve noticed that sometimes I get redirected to the Help Center on my iPhone too instead of the Request Support page. I’m not sure if anything has changed since then but I would suggest borrowing an iPhone to see if it still works.
Laura
Hi! I bought an iPhone just to try to recover it, but I get redirected to the Help Center, so it is not working apparently. Are there any other chances available?
Hey Emre,
You can also try reaching out to @juanr325 on Instagram and see if he can help. He’s helped recover hacked accounts for a few people that I know but I’m not sure if he’s still doing that. You can send him a DM or reach him on Whatsapp number that is listed in his profile.
Good luck!
Laura
Hi! I contacted him, but he doesn’t give an answer. Guess I have no chances to recover the account.
I just tried getting to the “Request Support” page on my iphone and it still worked. In the “Trouble logging in?” screen I only entered my username, then I clicked on “Next” and it sent me a message with link to get back into my account. I ignored that and clicked on “Need more help?”. In the next screen I clicked on “I can’t access this email or phone number” and the “Request Support” page popped up.
I suggest clicking around and trying various different things. While usually it sends me to the Help Center, this combination worked for me and I was able to get to the “Request Support” page. Hope it works for you too!
Laura
Hi Laura, I will try this and get back to you! Thanks for trying it out. I hope I will be able to contact Instagram too! 🙂
Hi Emre,
Did you ever figure out how to get to the Request Support page? I’m in the same situation you described, and every time I click “need more help?”, I get sent to the help center.
Hi Laura,
This has given me hope! Mine was hacked a week ago. I’m pretty sure it was a bot of some Sort, they have not done anything with my account as far as posting or anything, it’s just sitting there. The email associated looks fake. I feel like I’ve read everything. I went through the iOS route and submitted my request for support. I sent the picture with my face, clear hands and the code about a week ago and no response. Just not sure if I should submit again, it’s very disheartening as I’ve had mine for 11 years. Any further tips?
Hey Megan,
Yes, I would try submitting the form again. For contact email I would suggest using an email that is not associated with any of your social media accounts.
Laura
Thank you so much. I did that and got the automated response right away. Sent my picture which is clear as day. I’m heavily tattooed so it should be easy to identify. Here’s to hoping they respond! I think I read you said the turnaround time should be a couple of days hopefully? Again thank you for all your help!
I’ve heard that some people get responses on the same day, some within 1-2 days. Good luck!
I submitted a request twice now. Both times I received the auto reply asking for a pic with the code. I sent them back in but a week later I haven’t heard anything back.
I would just keep trying. Instagram sure doesn’t make it easy for people to recover their accounts. Try using an email address that is not associated with any of your social media accounts next time.
Laura
Hi, how do you ask them to let the bot understand that I want to confirm my account? They haven’t sent me a unique code yet. I ask 10 times with different sentences and he still doesn’t understand.
Hi Thomas,
Unfortunately getting through the bots is one of the most difficult parts of the account recovery process. If it doesn’t work, try submitting a request from a new email address and see if that helps.
Laura
Hi Laura,
My account was hacked in the summer of 2017, do you think its too late to recover it? Probably huh..?? Reading your post made me remember all those horrible moments ;( not because of what you said but because of how hard it effected me. Just like you mentioned all those years and pictures of hard work gone in seconds. I tried most of those things that you mentioned in your article but was unsuccessful. I was at 114k followers, restarted a new account at 42k its just not the same now. I gave up and started from the bottom.
Hey Uriel,
According to the Facebook’s Ad team, they only keep information on their servers for up to 2 weeks. Unfortunately if you don’t recover your account within that time frame, the chances of getting it back are much lower to almost none. I know the frustration you feel… it is such a horrible feeling to loose years of hard work : (
Laura
Hi Laura,
My partners instagram was hacked. We have managed to submit the form and have sent the email with picture and code. We now have had an automated reply saying that ‘it appears that your case has been resolved’.
Any ideas?
Much appreciated
Hi Nathan,
I would submit the form again and maybe try using a different email address this time. Unfortunately it seems that many of these emails from Instagram are sent out with automatic replies and it’s quite difficult to get through to a real person. Just keep trying and submitting the form and hopefully it gets through!
Good luck,
Laura
Hello hope you are well
someone hacked my profile and they removed my email and my number from my original business account so i cant get it back
what do you recommend?
Hi Joe,
If you have a business account, you may be able to get in touch with a live representative through Facebook Ads chat. This option is available for people who have business accounts and have paid for ads in the past. The Facebook Ads support team can sometimes help recover the accounts.
Laura
Hey Laura!
I personally DM’d you on IG about this. I’d appreciate if you can reply there.
We went through all the steps.
Paid hacker money.
Submitted photo with pin.
Filled out form several times.
Got in touch with FB ads chat.
Hi Shiv,
I hope my IG reply helped you. Good luck!
Laura
This just happened to me as well, lost my account with almost 9 years of history. I have tried anything, submitting forms also at least requesting my data if the account cannot be enabled, nothing seems to work. One week went by. Do you have any new suggestions on this topic?
hey, i need your help asap. someone hacked my insta account and changed my gmail so i cant get reset password link and when im trying to login with facebook they gave me create new password but after that instagram show me page like “help to show you own this account.secure your account you have get help to login it to it” after that they gave just information which not an option because i cant get loggin into my account. i have my personal account with my photos and im scared that someone get misuse of it. and yes im also try to need help and reporting issue and they gave me reset password link although i cant get login into my account after facebook gave me reset link they sow me same page ” help to show you own this account.secure your account you have get help to login it to it” . i also send messages to @junar325 but he did not reply and i dont have bussiness account so i cant try facebook ad chat option. just give some help all i need is my account back and you are my one and only hope. just reply
Laura,
Thank you so much for writing this! I just got hacked and I am so lost. I read through your post, but I can’t find the the report to support on the instagram app. I had a creator account that was mean’t to promote tourism in Egypt. I had about 150k followers. I worked really hard to grow this account and can’t believe what is happening. Would really appreciate any help!
Hi,
I’m really hoping you can help me on Saturday I had my Instagram account hacked and taken over. I charged my password added my phone number did the two factor authentication , and the email address back to mine. but some how the hacker was able to get back in to account and changed it back and now I can’t access my account, every time I try to get in, it come up with the help us confirm you own this account with the hackers email address. i have been trying everything to get it back Instagram is no help at all. I was wondering if you knew anyone who was able to get the purple request support on a android or do i have to buy an iphone which i don’t mind doing if it’s the only way to get my account back. I’m sorry to bother you with this it’s just really starting to stress me out. any help you could give me i would really appreciate it .
help me Instagram password recovery
My personal account have been hacked yesterday and I cannot get in at all. I tried everything and still nothing. I do have an android phone but it still not working.
Can I get help? I’m freaking out and really need my Instagram back? There are so many memories I have on it and really really need it.