Thank you for sharing. You have prevented many people from falling into the same trap as the same thing JUST happened to my friend, so I showed her this article.

The first thing I check on an e-mail is the return address. If it doesn't look legit, it's a scam. The second thing I check if the address looks good, is the grammar. If it isn't proper English, it's fake. Legit businesses make sure their language is correct. If all that passes and it has a link to click to verify something, I type in the company address myself and skip any links. People get in trouble the most from clicking a link!

I don't understand this, you can change the Name and Bio, but cannot reset the password or delete the account? I don't know how Instagram FORGOT PASSWORD option works, but usually that's the easiest way to get back access on any social media or other websites. And please do not fall into another scam where they ask you to pay money and return your account. i feel your pain and i hope you get your account back. But honestly, try forgot password thing if you haven't tried that so far.

You know it's not a scam if they say something as eloquent "Im not want she's money."

If you smell a rat, there probably is a rat present. Always report any suspicious e-mails. If it's legit, the company will get back to you.

I keep refreshing her account and the name and bio keep changing to either "stolen acount" bla bla bla, or a random username its so confusing

Sounds like they only have bots working the CS responses. Bots suck and won't get you anywhere. Contact executives directly and make them feel the pain to get something done. For Instagram, try their COO (Chief Operations Officer). Her name is Marne Levine. Look up her contact info on social media.

Instagram account security is flawed in so many levels... When I first tried creating an Instagram account I found out someone was successfully using my email address (no idea how the account got "verified"), but I was permitted to flag and verify that the email was mine while the account wasn't, so they were unlinked. No idea how the other person solved her situation. But, I really think it might have been some sort of honest mistake, because I never received emails from Instagram from when the other person account was created and the same crazy stuff that happens on my gmail (it's firstname.lastname@ and I always get emails from firstnamelastname@ and think she might be getting several of my MIA mails) might have happened. But, having provided official document with picture when getting the account verified and now the same document is disregarded is crazy AF

Every email verification from phishing are grammatically incorrect. Like the email you receive. This should be a heads up to everyone. I receive once from facebook then i know it was fake because of the grammar. Nice shots =)

Sorry for what happened. Shame on Instagram. Your photos are amazing!

https://help.instagram.com/1682636905358680 Im sorry if you have tried this avenue, but it looked like you may be able to reverse the email change. If I understood this right, it said that if the email was changed, then it had to be changed by using the original address it was set up with (aka your email.) If you still have access to the email account, you may be able to go and find the original do you want to change your email from instagram and take back control that way. Im sorry if this was no help, they have a fairly extensive help page, if this dosen't work there may be something else on there that will.

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I can't vouch for Instagram, but customer service is part of my job here in a video games company. Account thefts are, sadly and surprisingly, more common than they should be and I helped restore tons of accounts to our users. I can't give too much internal details, but this is usually how we handle this. 1) User inquires about the stolen account; 2) We send them a reply, which is NEVER an automated one, but we do use pre-written templates to speed up our work. Here we ask all the information we need, and regardless of the information you think we should have about you, we still NEED you to send us what we ask for confirmation and technical reasons. 3) The user sends the info we asked, if incomplete, we will reply again with the missing info and push the user to send us the remaining info by providing all the guides neccessary; 4) Once we have your info, we forward it to the department that is authorised to handle your information for real, (to be continued)

I don't understand why people don't use login verification when their account is so important to them. It's just like having a safe with all your valuables inside that can be opened with a paperclip.

I'm so sorry this happened to you! My 14 yr old daughter is also a photographer and her account has been copied many times. The thief uses an exact copy of her page, bio, everything. It's so frustrating for her because she has to get all her followers to report the copycat's page so it gets deleted. This has happened 4 times now in the last 2 years. So ridiculous. Stealing is wrong, people need to get better hobbies.

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Honestly this would never happen to a males twitter account. You have to be accountable for your actions