Receiving spam messages is a regular occurrence, and lots of people have complained that it seems especially common on Instagram.
Even if you turn your profile private, spammers and bots *still* seem to find a way to add you to a group and send you inappropriate links or ask you to follow a profile.
If this is a common occurrence for you, here's how to solve the issue.
Vix Meldrew, who runs online business network Grow & Glow, shared how to fix it on her Instagram page - and lots of people were grateful.
There are two ways to fix it - depending on what kind of account you have.
1. Either, open your Instagram account on your phone and head to settings.
2. You will find the privacy tab, click it and open the messages section.
3. You will find two options under the heading 'Allow others to add you to groups.' Choose the setting that only lets people you follow add you to groups.
If you have a private account, it's a little more bit more difficult as you can't seem to technically stop people adding you to groups.
But you can turn off notifications that you've been added, so they'll just sit in the requests folder and you can ignore it.
1. To do this, you need to open your Instagram app on your phone and go to your profile
2. Then tap on the icon with three horizontal lines in the top right corner and select the settings option, at the bottom of the list.
3. Once you're on the Settings screen, tap Notifications and go to your Direct Messages.
4. Under the Group Requests section, select the Off option - which means you will no longer be notified. You can also turn off Message Requests to stop spammers from contacting you.
Did this work for you? Let us know in the comments.
