It’s one of the most popular social media apps around the world, but if you use Instagram, make sure you’re on the lookout for a new scam message.
Researchers from Which? have warned about a new scam message that claims a copyright violation has been detected on your account.
Worryingly, the message threatens to close your account unless you hand over personal detials.
Which? explained: “A believable message pretending to be from Instagram’s help centre threatens to close your account if you don’t hand over personal information.
“But the message is a phishing scam that you should delete and ignore.”
The direct message comes from an account claiming to be Instagram, and warns that one of your posts has infringed copyright law.
It reads: “Hello Dear Instagram User! A copyright violation has been detected in a post on your account. If you think copyright infringement is wrong, you should provide feedback.
“Otherwise, your account will be closed within 24 hours. You can give feedback from the link below. Thank you for your understanding.”
The message then includes a link to a fake Instagram site, where users are urged to hand over personal details.
It also signs off with Instagram’s official address in California, giving a false impression that it’s real.
While the message looks pretty convincing, there are several tell-tale signs that it’s fake.
Firstly, it comes from an account called ‘Instagramsupportcf’, which is not one of Instagram’s official accounts.
It also contains several grammatical errors, which are always a key sign of a scam message.
Finally, Instagram will never contact you about account information or issues via DM, and instead will email you.
Speaking to Which?, Instagram said that it was investigating the account behind the scam messages.
Mirror Online has checked, and the account appears to have been deleted.
If you receive the message, make sure you report it, by holding down on the message and tapping Report.
