On Tuesday Instagram launched Security Checkup for people who have been hacked before.
Instagram says it will never DM users
Instagram says it has seen a hike in the number of malicious accounts sending DMs to people, claiming to be from the photos and videos platform. Reportedly, these questionable accounts have been sending DMs telling people that they have violated policies and rules, are at risk of being banned, or that their photos were being shared elsewhere. Instagram has made it clear that it will never send direct messages to its users.
As a result, the platform has sent a notice at the top of users’ inboxes over the past two months to warn them about unlawful activity.
“Security Checkup will guide people, whose accounts may have been hacked, through the steps needed to secure them. This includes checking login activity, reviewing profile information, confirming the accounts that share login information and updating account recovery contact information such as phone number or email,” Instagram wrote on their blog.
How to protect yourself against malicious accounts
The Facebook-owned platform has urged users to report questionable accounts, as well as content that users find questionable.
Instagram says that they have also made some updates to its Support Inbox so that you can be up to date with the latest information of what is happening with your reports, or find out if any of your posts are violating policies and rules. The Support Inbox includes being able to easily see the status of everything you’ve ever reported on Instagram, see what posts of yours may have broken our rules, and how to appeal the decisions taken by the platform.
Among a number of safety measures you can follow, Instagram said that you need to keep your email and phone number up to date so that they can be able to reach you if any suspicious activity takes place in your account.