If strangers use your profile picture on Instagram, you should report the fake profiles - and ask your followers to do the same. Editor Hauke ​​from Checked4You, the youth portal of the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Center, shows how it works step by step.

Account copied? Strange names?

“Ping” – Instagram informs me about a new follower. When I look, I'm surprised: the profile picture is that of a friend that she uses on her Insta channel. And her name will also appear underneath. Did she open a second account? But then why this completely cryptic, meaningless account name “tdp06210”?

I write her a private message via Instagram to the account I know and find out that she hasn't created a second one. You can also experience something like this on . Unfortunately, unlike there, you can't hide the follower list from the public on Insta.

Report profile!

Because the new follower is not my acquaintance, someone is pretending to be her. You can – and should – report this to Instagram! There are two options for this:

  1. A form on this Instagram help page .
  2. In the Instagram app itself. Because it's not entirely self-explanatory, here are the step-by-step instructions:

Report fake Instagram account

Tap on the three dots in the top right corner of the fake profile. We'll show you the next steps in the gallery below.

The fake account with the copied profile picture of my friend was deleted after a good hour. I don't know whether Instagram deleted it or the scammers themselves.

Why are profiles copied?

The reasons can be different. Mostly it's about being able to start a chat with you. This is only possible if both profiles follow each other. So if you tap “Follow also” for your new follower, a message will appear shortly afterwards. Then it's about, for example, cheating you out of money (like this scam on Facebook ), luring you to erotic sites or getting your personal data for other scams.

Source:

Checked4You
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