An IG account pretending to be me

Instagram Marketing
#1

Something weird happened to me today. I was searching for one of my accounts on the IG search, and I found another account with (almost) the exact same name, and with a post of one of the photos from my account, that this (fake?) account posted a couple of months ago.

Since I have many accounts, I can’t be 100% sure that I didn’t create this 2nd account myself. I don’t remember doing so, but who knows… Maybe I did and I forgot. But I don’t remember having an email and password for this account.

  1. Is there any way for me to get Instagram to send an email to the owner of that 2nd account (like a password reset email, or something), so that I can check if I receive this email myself?
    (If I receive the email, then it’s an account that I created but forgot about. If I don’t receive an email, then it’s a fake account that someone else created).

  2. If I reach the conclusion that this is a fake account that someone else created, what would be the best way to take it down?
    Use the REPORT option on the IG app?
    or some other way to reach out to IG and tell them that it’s fake?

#2

Type in the user name, then click “forgot password”. If you get the email, it’s yours. If you don’t, then someone is going to freak out.

This happens a lot though. One of my travel accounts (all OC or UGC content). I’ve seen photos that I’ve taken, as well as multiple accounts that used our name or a close derivative down to the bio for everything from a travel agency, to travel spam pages.

It’s the hazards of what we all do here if you ask me.

Report via the app and by email. You are going to need to have a solid case.

Honestly, I would just chalk it up to “it comes with the territory”.

But if you have enough accounts doing that you can try to make a case to get verified to set you apart.

5 Likes
#3

In case it is someone else pretending to be you, just use the report button. I have had that happen and they resolve it very quickly.

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#4

There’s a difference between pretending to be you, and looking like your account or being similar.

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#5

He might end up banning his own account :joy:

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#6

how active is the account? if the last post was from months ago then more likely you created it in the past and forgot

1 Like
#7

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.
I requested a password reset, and it showed me that it’s sending it to a yahoo email, so I knew that it wasn’t my ig account.

I reported the account and will wait for the ig reply.

2 Likes
#8

Good luck! I once was in the exact same situation as you and I found 3 accounts with the exact same name and almost the same username as my meme account. They reposted exclusively everything I posted with caption and everything.

I tried reporting, but it didn’t work. So I started adding my username in the captions of my posts and they started reposting that too lol. That was my way around it :wink:

5 Likes
#9

:)) I never in that situation but I think I will save your trick for the future.

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#10

Had that before! But its just the extras you get when you are famous!

GL tho;)

Danny

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#11

So you made them work for you? nice!

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#12

Update: a couple of hours after I reported this account, IG took it down.
Weird that IG didn’t email or message me to tell me about it, but at least they took it down.

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#13

IG moves in a mysterious way…

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#14

They usually send you a message…

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#15

Had a few and told my followers to report it for offensive posting … Took care of them within a week

#16

Exactly. If you can’t take them down, have them work for you [Insert Evil Laugh Here] :smirk:

3 Likes
#17

When i found someone is stealing my content i just add my username in the post description and they post that too…or whatever i want honestly.

Another thing you can do is to make a post advertising your account and then delete it from your account once they posted on theirs.

1 Like
#18

That’s exactly what I did and it worked like a charm